OPINION: Perhaps Ireland should hasten more slowly with its emissions reductions

AS someone who is so pro-European Union it can be embarrassing sometimes – and I hope appropriate measures are taken to mark Ireland’s 50 years as a member next January – it pains me to see how silly it/we can occasionally be in a worldwide context.

Two news stories last week highlight, starkly, what I am on about. The headline on one read: “EU gives Ireland two months to halt peat-cutting in conservation areas or face court”, with the sub headline “European Commission says dialogue with Ireland on bog issue has been ‘long’, having started in 2011”.

This is on top of demands, and agreement by our Government, that farmers in Ireland must reduce agricultural emissions by 25% as part of the 51% emissions cut overall by 2030 in the Climate Act passed by the Oireachtas.

The second, and related story which jumped out at me last week concerned the sabotaged Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines which has been pumping methane into the Baltic Sea/atmosphere at a record rate. The four leaks involved have led to what is being described as likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

It is highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, with a leak rate of 22,920 kg per hour, equivalent to burning about 630,000 pounds of coal per hour.

The environmental protection agency Greenpeace estimated the leaks could have the effect of releasing almost 30 million tonnes of Co2 into the atmosphere, more than two-thirds of Denmark’s emissions every year.

Last December a major leak that occurred at offshore oil and gas fields in Mexican waters off the Gulf of Mexico spilled around 100 metric tonnes of methane per hour into the air. It released around 40,000 metric tonnes of methane over the 17 days, the equivalent of burning 1.1 billion pounds of coal, before it was stopped.

Now, admittedly, neither the Nord Stream or Mexican pipeline emissions could have been foreseen by even the most zealous climate change activist but it does highlight a fundamental problem with how the world is addressing the climate crisis. It remains an extraordinarily one-sided affair, and wherein Ireland’s emissions amount to less than a hill of beans.

I say this as someone who accepts completely the reality of climate change as established by science and agree totally that emissions worldwide must be reduced, and reduced fast. But there is no point in this island flagellating itself as in the bad old days of then fashionable – even popular – self-mortification while so much of the rest of the world remains 'as was' where emissions are concerned. And that includes neither the Nord Stream 'sabotage' or Mexican accident.

What does it matter how well-behaved we in Ireland are at cutting emissions, or even we in Europe, if mass-emitters such as China, India, and south-east Asia, in particular, continue to spew methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as they do, also the US and South America, though that (American) continent is making at least an effort.

Here in Europe we must continue with our reduction measures but perhaps over a lengthier period because, really, it will make only a slight difference until the big beasts get seriously involved. Punishing our beef and dairy farmers, not to mention the turf cutters, will make feck all difference until the likes of China, India, and the US are fully on board, but it will cause a lot of unnecessary personal, social and political stress and anxiety here in Ireland.

When it comes to cutting back on our emissions we should, perhaps, hasten more slowly.

Next month the international COP 27 (Conference of the Parties… of the UNFCCC) takes place in Egypt to address again the issue of climate change worldwide and what can be done. The first COP was in 1995 and took place in Berlin.

Since then COPs has taken place in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. A key task for the COP is to review the national communication and emission inventories submitted by the participating parties/countries. Based on that information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by the parties/countries involved in reducing greenhouse gases in their economies.

COP 27 takes place at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt from November 6 to 18 next and in the continent (Africa) which is responsible for just 4% of global emissions this year.

By comparison, in 2022 China is expected to be responsible for 32.4% of worldwide emissions and the US for 12.6%. The richer G20 countries are responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions this year which are now back to pre-pandemic levels. The G20 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Unsurprisingly Ireland is not there, though the EU is represented at meetings of the G20 even as it also includes member countries such as France, Germany, and Italy.

It is frequently argued that, though the major emitters of greenhouse gases have been and are the developed countries rather than any in, for instance, Africa then it is those developed countries which must take the harshest measures towards reduction.

But that is to ignore another reality: the greatest emitters of greenhouse gases today are developing economies like India and China, Russia too. They, naturally, would like to have the lifestyles achieved in the developed world of North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, South Korea. And who would blame them? But the cost to the planet could prove irreversible.

COP 26 took place in Glasgow last year and it encouraged the US and the developed world generally – those primarily responsible for emitting most greenhouse gases - to increase funding for countries among hardest hit by climate change such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Rich countries are expected to contribute $40 billion annually before 2025 to help poorer countries adapt to floods, droughts, forest fires, glaciers melting, rising sea levels and more frequent hurricanes. We will see what happens. Just a fraction of the $100 billion promised by 2020 to help these poorer, more affected countries was in fact delivered.

With the average temperature of the world at 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level, it is hardly a surprise that this year so far we have experienced forest fires in Australia, Siberia, California, Alaska, and the Amazon. There have also been floods caused by heavy rain in Pakistan, disrupting the lives of 33 million people there.

Last week in Florida Hurricane Ian had taken the lives of at least 47 people at the time of writing due to one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit that part of the US and which was believed directly related to warming seas.

So, yes Houston, there is a problem. But we need to address it more equitably and more sensibly. Ireland never had an industrial revolution so our historic contribution to green house gas emissions is much lower than is the case with neighbouring countries.

Cutting the turf in those rapidly disappearing parts of Ireland where it still is cut, or focusing on elderly farmers raising a few beef cattle on small holdings in the West and along the border is hardly likely to lessen the likes of Hurricane Ian in the US or floods in Pakistan.

In both instances they might look closer to home for more likely causes.