The Elusive Kyoto Target

Thanks to the Celtic Tiger, Ireland is going backwards when it comes to carbon emissions. All those people making all that money and then spending it on petrol and heating oil. The air over the island is filling up with CO2 when the government promised the world that the Irish people would cut emissions. What to do?

Raise taxes of course. How else to get the attention of the voting public? Make them pay, and then they'd think twice about turning up their thermostats when the cold North winds blow. Charge more for fuel and they'll not be driving all over the place, shuttling children to sports and music lessons and dance lessons and what all.

Being so keen to improve the air, the Irish will jump at the chance to pay more taxes. With that in mind, Green Minister John Gormley plans to introduce a carbon tax so that Ireland will meet its Kyoto target in 2012.

He's taken the first step, with the new vehicle taxes that will come into effect in July. Anyone foolish enough to buy a gas-guzzler will have to pay an additional EU2000, and then Mr. Gormley will toss the euros into the air and carbon atoms will fall out. Isn't that how it's to be done? Why else charge people money for something unless there's a relationship between the cause and the effect?

Mr. Gormley would very much like it if incandescent bulbs were banned as soon as possible, so that mercury-containing flourescents would become the lighting of choice. Then the landfills can become contaminated with mercury and everyone can enjoy a good hearty panic before an expensive solution is proposed. It's either that, or everyone will have to have a special bin for disposal of the bulbs, with new laws enacted that levy heavy fines on anyone pitching a fluorescent bulb in the waste bin. Then the bulbs could be shipped overseas to some poor Third World country for recycling, and let them deal with the mercury.

Is it any wonder, then, that Australia's not signing the Kyoto Accord after all? When reducing greenhouse gasses means taxing the voters, the politicians see a case of political suicide. Don't count on Ireland meeting its Kyoto target any time soon. There's enough doubt about the reality of man-made global warming to make a sceptic of anyone who's being asked to pay up.