10.31.06
The Inconvenient Truth about the M3 motorway
The Inconvenient Truth is that the M3 motorway is not just bad for the heritage of Tara, it is bad for the Irish people, economically, environmentally, legally, politically and morally. The M3 is symptomatic of the current cataclysmic economic policy which involves spending inordinate amounts of public and private capital on motorways, to the exclusion of public transport. Transport is Ireland’s fastest growing contributor to carbon buildup.
Toll roads are a new thing to Ireland. Tolling the M3 at 2 locations, and allowing the bulk of toll revenue to go to foreign multi-nationals over the 30-40 year toll period, the M3 represents everything that is wrong with current Irish economic policy, which will benefit the ruling political parties in the short run, but harm Irish citizens and business over the long run. But so far, the public have been denied a real voice as the toll hearing/public consultation takes place after the Public Private Partnership contract is already signed.
The European Commission has criticised Ireland for not being on target to reduce carbon emissions. It says Ireland ranks amongst the worst performers in the EU, at fourth
from the bottom in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Kyoto Protocols, Ireland is committed to reducing the rise in carbon emissions to 13% by 2010. However, the Commission says that without additional measures, Ireland’s carbon usage will increase by closer to 30%.
“The task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory.” – Sir Nick Stern, Treasury economist
The Stern Review only serves to punctuate the clear warning being sent not just by scientists and the EU, but by political leaders such as Al Gore, with his film An Inconvenient Truth and Tony Blair, who said “There is nothing more serious, more urgent, more demanding”. The UK is responding with new legislation to set up a powerful “carbon committee” to set and enforce legally binding targets. What about Ireland?
(Cartoon by Martyn Turner, The Irish Times, 31 Oct 2006 – click to enlarge)
Minister for the Environment, Mr Dick Roche, has been accused of ‘passive indifference’ to Ireland’s record and the climate crisis in general. This, Ironically, is the same Minister who gave the final approval for the route of the M3 motorway through the Tara complex, in the face of huge public opposition.
Instead of aiming to achieve Agenda 21, a UN Treaty sustainable development treaty that Ireland signed up to, Ireland has invented Transport 21, which allegedly involves spending 30-40 billion euros on transport, over the next 15 years. This comes after the National Development Plan spending on motorways ballooned from 6 to 18 billion euros, and is not nearly complete. Based on this track record, Transport 21 will cost closer to 100 billion euros.
This Irish Times Editorial clearly takes him to task:
Much heat but little light
The Irish Times – Editorial
Tue, Oct 31, 06
Environmentalists have long made the case that humanity is facing potentially catastrophic consequences unless progress is made in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming. Scientists too have produced evidence supporting this grim prognosis. And now the British government has published an economic analysis which concludes that ignoring the phenomenon could lead to upheaval on the scale of the 1930s Depression.
Prime minister Tony Blair and chancellor Gordon Brown set aside their political differences yesterday to highlight the conclusions of Sir Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank. In what Mr Blair described as the most important document put before his government, Sir Nicholas outlined a bleak future of mass flooding, falling crop yields, reduced water supplies and heat waves.
This cataclysmic picture presents the international community with an immense challenge which can only be addressed by the kind of united approach that has been absent to date. Some of the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitters – including the US and China – are not bound by the terms of the Kyoto Protocol which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to levels lower than those which existed in 1990.
As it happens, Sir Nicholas’s call for ameliorative action – and the overwhelming case set out by him for it – coincided with the release at the weekend of new European Environment Agency projections which suggest that Ireland will significantly overshoot its Kyoto targets unless much stronger measures are taken here. The European Commission said only Spain, Portugal and Greece are performing more poorly, with Ireland’s emissions likely to be almost 16 per cent off target by 2010.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche rejected these projections and insisted that this State will comply with its Kyoto obligations. But this is no time for such saccharine-coated, hollow assurances. Admittedly, the greater use of renewable energy in electricity generation and of biofuels in the transport sector are among measures which should improve our performance. But the central thrust of the Government’s approach is to buy its way out of the problem of compliance by purchasing credits for emissions from low-discharge countries. Indeed, it was only in July that it got around to releasing a discussion document on the National Climate Change Strategy – six years after that strategy was published.
Mr Roche and his ministerial colleagues have delayed for long enough and must now demonstrate their commitment to addressing climate change. In the first instance, this should include a reversal of the short-sighted decision not to introduce a scheme of carbon taxes. The latter would have the merit of fairly applying the “polluter pays” principle. As Sir Nicholas’s analysis shows, it is too late for words but not for action. What is needed is real political leadership. The stakes could not be higher.
Please write to the Irish Times [lettersed-at-irish-times.ie] and your local TD, and voice your opposition to the M3.