The Greening of Government Buildings?

Last week the prospects for an alternative Government – already dealt a mortal mathematical blow by the electorate – finally bit the dust with the formation of a Fianna Fail/Green/PD/Bits & Bobs coalition. The role of the PDs is likely to be incidental, unless of course you’re waiting on a hospital trolley for treatment, while the real or imagined influence of the ‘Bits & Bobs’ elements will probably be confined to their own constituencies. The coalition is being marketed as a Fianna Fail/Green construct. So just how Green is the Programme for Government? What elements were already there in one form or another?

Taking a look at just two areas (energy and climate change), it’s clear that the negotiating teams spent a lot of time cutting and pasting. And they weren’t raiding Green policies - rather, they were looking to the FF/PD Government’s National Climate Change Strategy and the Energy White Paper (incidentally, I’ve prepared a table showing the source of each commitment - but haven’t been able to work out how to post it. If anyone knows how to post tables in Blogger, please let me know).

The carbon tax proposal has already been dealt with over at Notes on the Front, and I still believe that a carbon quota or carbon rationing system would be more socially equitable than a carbon tax.

Of 22 other significant commitments in the energy and climate change areas, 16 were already present in some form in the White Paper and/or the Climate Change Strategy, although the Greens did obtain improvements in respect of a few of these (notably with regard to building regulations).

There are six new commitments relating to energy and climate change in the Programme for Government:

1. Introduce net metering. This would allow people to sell energy from renewable sources back into the grid. It’s a good idea, but unlikely to be relevant for some years to come.

2. Support the establishment of community methane digesters to reduce pollution and simultaneously produce methane gas which can be used in CHP plants. In plain English, this refers to converting sewage into energy for district heating plants. Again, it’s a good idea and has been successfully implemented elsewhere. But it would be nice to have something more concrete than ’support’.

3. Agree an all-party approach on climate change targets. This one sounds like waffle, but is actually vital. Hopefully, Labour and Fine Gael will come to the table with their own ideas, rather than simply sniping from the sidelines.

4. In advance of all-party agreement, set a target for this administration of a reduction of 3% per year on average in our greenhouse gas emissions. This is new and potentially significant, but would need to be put on a statutory footing.

5. Require the mandatory use of bio-fuel mixes in transport fuels and ensure that there is a nationwide bio-fuel distribution network. Again, this is a good idea but we need some target dates.

6. And now for the big one. “The Government will mandate the Minister for Finance to present an outline carbon report (’carbon budget’) in conjunction with the annual financial Budget. This will be followed immediately by a report from the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government outlining our use of energy in the preceding year, the progress made in meeting the reduction targets, and government plans to meet the target in the following year”.

Basically, a carbon budget would create a juxtaposition between our financial revenue and expenditure, and our carbon revenue and expenditure. The idea is not new – medium and long-term carbon budgets are enshrined in the draft Climate Change Bill published earlier this year by UK Environment Secretary David Miliband. But herein lies the problem: nowhere in the FF/Green Programme for Government is there reference to climate change legislation along the lines of that currently being debated in the UK. The draft UK legislation states that:

It is intended that the Bill will establish an economically credible emissions reduction pathway to 2050, by putting into statute medium and long-term targets. These targets already exist on a non-statutory basis. In addition, a system of carbon budgeting is proposed. This means that for successive five year periods, starting with the period 2008-12, there will be a limit on total carbon dioxide emissions. The Bill proposes that carbon budget periods be set at least three periods (i.e. for fifteen years) ahead. This approach provides for both certainty and flexibility in the system: emissions can vary between years provided the total over a five year period does not exceed the budget. The series of five year carbon budgets will provide a trajectory from now to 2050, thereby providing a clear framework of expected emissions reductions over time.

The Greens’ failure to obtain a commitment to legislate for emission reductions – and for carbon budgeting – renders the Programme for Government aspirational. Fianna Fail can continue along St. Augustine’s path: “God, give us CO2 reductions, but not just now”. And the Greens - with no leverage in terms of numbers - will be have to accept the environmental crumbs from the Cabinet table.