Minister for the Environment John Gormley has admitted that Ireland will have difficulty in meeting its Kyoto commitments if a carbon levy is not introduced as soon as possible.
Mr Gormley said he would be pressing Minister for Finance Brian Cowen to introduce the carbon levy in the next budget. The tax is part of the programme for government, however it was not included in the Budget on Wednesday.
Mr Cowen made no commitment to a time frame for its introduction, saying that it would happen during the "lifetime" of the administration and he would set up a commission to examine the proposal shortly.
Mr Gormley yesterday introduced the State's first "carbon budget", an addition to the full Budget which sets out the State's current emissions, measures to reduce them, including changes to the motor tax system and a ban on traditional light bulbs, and projected future emissions after those reductions.
The provisional figures for 2006, show that Ireland's net carbon emissions stood at just under 69 million tonnes per annum.
Under the Kyoto Protocol emissions will have to be reduced to 63 million tonnes per year by 2012.
The National Climate Change Strategy would have brought Ireland's emissions to 66.2 million tonnes by 2012. The new measures announced by Mr Gormley will bring further reductions which will lower net emissions to 65.6 million tonnes.
Chief among the Minister's new measures are the changes to the motor tax system. From July 1st, 2008, motor tax will be based solely on emissions, rather than on engine size, with cars with high emissions paying up to €2,000 - a significant increase on the current top rate of motor tax for private vehicles of €1,343.
The system will be split into seven bands with the most fuel efficient vehicles paying a motor tax of just €100, a reduction of €51 on the current lowest rate. The new rates coupled with the new vehicle registration tax (VRT) regime, also now linked to emissions rather than engine size, should encourage consumers to make the switch to more fuel efficient cars, Mr Gormley said.
"From now on people will be looking at their cars in a very different way. There is commonality now between the VRT system introduced yesterday and the new system I introduced this morning, I think it will embed in people's minds the importance of climate change and how their actions can actually effect climate change."
Only some 2.5 per cent of the current fleet of cars were "gas guzzlers" Mr Gormley said, but the importance of the tax changes was that they would affect people's future choices.
The new motor tax system will affect all new cars and imported pre-owned cars, but not cars currently on the road as, Mr Gormley said assessing these vehicles would be "quite complicated" even using the existing NCT system.
Mr Gormley's other main carbon saving plan is the elimination of "traditional" inefficient light bulbs.
The bulbs will be banned from 2009, with householders required to replace them with energy efficient bulbs.
While this initiative will not generate emissions savings in the current budgetary cycle, Mr Gormley hopes that it will help meet the Kyoto targets.
However, the most effective way of meeting the target would be the introduction of a carbon levy, he said. This would be a levy on fossil fuels, including peat, coal, petrol and diesel, based on the amount of emissions they produce.
"I think it would be difficult [to meet Kyoto targets] without the carbon levy. Without putting a price on carbon we're not going in the right direction . . . and I don't think time is on our side" he said. When asked if the levy system would be introduced in next year's budget he said: "I would be pushing for that, but you have to remember it's the call of the Minister for Finance."
SWITCH: turning on CFLs makes cents
Householders will have to change all their light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs from 2009 following a ban on traditional bulbs. While old bulbs already in use can be retained, this type of bulb will not longer be available in shops for replacement.
Mr Gormley has not yet specified which types of energy efficient bulbs will be required, however most bulbs classed as energy-saving use only 20 per cent of the energy of ordinary bulbs, with compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), using 80 per cent less electricity than ordinary bulbs to produce comparable light and last up to 10 times as long.
A traditional 100 watt bulb uses one unit of electricity every 10 hours and by switching, the average household should save about €123 a year in electricity bills. But there are problems. The bulbs can cost up to 10 times more and do not fit all light fittings and many are not compatible with "dimmer" switches.
