Why a Law?
We need a climate protection law because politicians have trouble seeing beyond the 24/7 news cycle and the 5 year electoral cycle. We need to put our long term emissions targets into law to give companies and citizens certainty about where we are going and confidence to invest in the changes we need to make to put our homes, our lifestyles and our businesses on the path to a low-carbon future.
We need a law so that each year the government produces a carbon budget that puts a cap on pollution in the way the financial budget puts a cap on spending. A law will give that carbon budget real force across all government departments in the way the financial budget has. What is currently called a carbon budget by the Minister for the Environment lacks that cross-government authority.
A climate law will give the Department of Finance the job of counting carbon in the way it counts euro now. And it will give the Minister for Finance or the Taoiseach the job of proposing to the Dáil a binding five year carbon budget, with annual milestones, and reporting every year on progress and on policies to correct any overshoot. It will hardwire action and accountability on climate change into the political system.
To paraphrase Michael Collins, a climate law is not the ultimate sustainability we desire but the framework to achieve it. It is a cornerstone of a low-carbon economy. If we had put our Kyoto commitments into law 10 years ago we would not then have built a third of our housing stock without decent building regulations on energy efficiency. It would not have taken seven years to change VRT and motor-tax to an emissions based system and we would not still be debating the need for a carbon tax.
Only a law will convince our counterparts in the UN negotiations for the Copenhagen summit that Ireland is serious this time. Only a law will convince the majority of our citizens that all parties in all governments from now to 2050 will keep climate change at the heart of policy-making. Only a law will make sure Ireland does its fair share to prevent climate change running out of control.
