Environment Ireland Conference:IRELAND CAN become a world leader in a burgeoning "clean-tech" sector worth billions of euro globally, according to Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
Mr Gormley yesterday said that the development of green technologies - such as the development of wind and wave power, energy-saving initiatives and low-carbon technologies - would provide the biggest business opportunity for this country in the 21st century.
The Green Party leader outlined his new approach at the Environment Ireland conference in Croke Park yesterday. He told delegates that $100 billion was invested in the industry last year and that it could be worth more than $1 trillion by 2030.
Mr Gormley and his Green Party colleagues have promoted this approach at Cabinet level, but his comments yesterday indicated that it has been discussed by Government but not adopted as policy.
"Such an approach to green technology would require a whole of Government approach. This is why the Government's Cabinet Subcommittee on Climate Change and Energy Security is now looking at the green technology issue very closely," he said.
The "clean-tech" sector in Ireland could take its lead from the substantial success of the life-science and biopharmaceutical sectors, contended Mr Gormley.
The Irish life sciences industry is estimated to be worth €40 billion a year to the economy, employing 35,000 people. Pharmaceuticals and chemicals now accounted for 49 per cent of Irish manufacturing exports, Mr Gormley added.
He said the factors that made that sector such a success could be applied to create a world-class green technology sector here.
"If the world is to tackle climate change and move away from fossil-fuel dependence, then green technological innovation in transport, agriculture and energy is absolutely essential.
"Such technological innovation provides one of the single greatest international market opportunities there is at present."
He praised the ESB for its €22 billion plan to become a world leader in renewable energy and the €26 million in funding made available by Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Éamon Ryan for research into wave energy.
"In California, an economy Ireland has tried to emulate successfully in many different areas, government and business have already decided to go green.
"By 2006 it was estimated that 22,000 people were employed in green tech, with venture capital investments estimated at $1.8 billion," he said.
Barry O'Leary, chief executive of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), also highlighted the growing importance of the "clean-tech" sector. Mr O'Leary identified three areas in which green technology was assuming growing importance - environmental and energy services; the IT sector and high-end manufacturing.
He said that "clean-tech" was the third highest sector for investment by venture capitalists in the US last year. A number of prominent multinational companies located in Ireland were using new technologies for the management of energy use.
Fine Gael's environment spokesman Phil Hogan said yesterday that the Government had failed to introduce any policies that would lead to reductions in greenhouse emissions.
Pointing to projections of a 4.6 per cent rise in emissions in 2007, Mr Hogan said it "made a mockery" of the commitment in the programme for government to reduce carbon emissions by an average of 3 per cent per annum over five years.
