The State spent €86.8million of taxpayers’ money buying carbon credits to pretend we are meeting climate targets, it’s been claimed.
Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Sean Fleming has branded the country’s approach to tackling emissions as a “charade”.
The Fianna Fail TD said: “In simple English, if we don’t meet our targets we can buy our way out of the
problem by buying unused emissions from somewhere else.
“It’s the biggest act of gross hypocrisy when it comes to the environment.
“We are saying that if we don’t meet our targets we will buy unused emission credits from somebody else and pay the price so that when we come to the end of the 2020 target, we are below our target because we have unused credits in the system.”
Mr Fleming added it was a “horrific” way to spend people’s money and was done to avoid a fine.
It also emerged the country could have to pay another €60million to “buy our way out of pretending” we are meeting renewable energy targets.
The PAC obtained the details in a letter from the Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment Mark Griffin.
The PAC also asked the department about Ireland’s prospects of meeting its Climate 2020 targets.
The letter states: “The department currently estimates the additional costs of this requirement to be in the region of €6million to €13million between now and then if we don’t meet the additional costs.
“Some years ago the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland estimated we could buy our way out of that problem at a cost of anywhere between €65million and €130million.
“However, in 2017 trade between Luxembourg, Lithuania and Estonia suggested the costs of the order of €22.5million per percentage point below our 16% target. So if we are 3% below our target it could cost us, based on those prices, another €60million to buy our way out of pretending we are meeting environmental targets.”
Mr Fleming added: “The State’s response, all of our response at Oireachtas and Government level is entirely hypocritical when you read this letter. I want everyone who has an interest in the environment to know that it is a charade what we are doing in this country.
“We are buying unused credit emissions from other countries to balance our books and pretend we are coming in under target. We are doing nothing of the sort. We should be doing the right thing in the first place.”
