Carbon energy taxes will be introduced "across the board" in next year's Budget, including the transport sector as well as industry, agriculture and electricity generation, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, pledged yesterday.
After addressing a round-table session of the UN climate change summit on behalf of the European Union, he told The Irish Times.
"It 's all on the table. We have to come up with a balanced and fair approach. Nobody can be
excluded."
The Minister's approach is designed to overcome objections from IBEC that industry is being unfairly targeted, in the light of figures showing that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
and transport are major contributors to the problem.
Mr Cullen said farming's share would fall as a result of reforms in the Common Agricultural
Policy, while cleaner cars would help to reduce rapidly growing emissions from transport – possibly aided by more favourable tax treatment.
Preparatory work on carbon energy taxes – which are due to be introduced from the end of 2004 –is being undertaken by a Green Tax Group chaired by the Department of Finance on which
the Department of the Environment is also represented.
Mr Cullen said the period of public consultation on the issue was now closed and all the submissions received were now being considered. However, he indicated that there would be negotiations on precisely how carbon taxes would be implemented.
He also said negotiations with industry and other interests on a carbon emissions trading regime for Ireland must conclude by the end of February, as the Government was required to file its plans with the European Commission by the end of March.
Asked how Ireland could talk about tackling climate change when its own emissions are massively overshooting the Kyoto Protocol target, Mr Cullen said he was "quite open about our problems "in talks with ministers from other countries.
With yesterday marking the sixth anniversary of the protocol's adoption in Japan 's old imperial capital, he still held out hope that Russian ratification – on which there have been mixed signals recently – would bring the treaty into force.
The EU, in any case, has committed itself to proceeding with measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and he noted that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, had pledged to advance
the "sustainability agenda" during Ireland 's presidency.
Though there was no "miracle solution "to climate change, Mr Cullen said developments in tech-
nology, including renewable energy, would demonstrate that there was an "upside "to the task
of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Minister 's statement was given a qualified welcome in Milan by Mr Pat Finnegan of GRIAN, the Irish climate action group."The problem for Ireland will be in applying this approach where it matters most –back home," he said.
"The Government will have to speedily reform both its approach to energy infrastructure and to fiscal action against fossil fuels if it is to have any hope of fulfilling the promise made in the Minister's statement or meeting our Kyoto target."
- World Health Organisation experts have predicted that the number of deaths from heat-waves, estimated at more than 25,000 in Europe last summer, is likely to double by 2030 as a result of climate change.
