EC critical of Ireland over carbon

[Eddiepops]

He doesn't have a great command of the English language at the best of times.

Labour will only happen to reduce emissions cause they would cause an economic downturn.

I honestly can't make out what you're trying to say here.

The only way for the country to reduce it's emissions effectively is for the state to take a larger role and plan effectively for it. The market cannot solve it by itself. The SEI grants for wood pellet boilers and the like is an example of the state intervening in the market to attain a desired goal.

I wholeheartedly agree, market based solutions offer some benefits but will never realise the cuts necessary in the next 10-15 years, which is the amount of time even the British government are giving us to save ourselves.

[ryano]

Spot on. Ireland is still quite sparsely populated in comparison to our continental neighbors so that while we have got worse becase of our fast growing population and economy, we are still far better than most European countries. Belgium is half the size yet they have double the amount of cars(due to their higher population of course). Thats 4 times worse than us. Belgium like England(50million in a country only twice the size as Ireland) is completely overpopulated and a greater threat to environmental damage than we are.

Car ownership is not as important in this context as car use. In 2000, Ireland was found to be the most car-dependent nation in the world: we drive 24,400km per year compared to the US average of 19,000km, the UK at 16,100km, France at 14,100km and Germany at 12,700km.

[ibis]

Spot on. Ireland is still quite sparsely populated in comparison to our continental neighbors so that while we have got worse becase of our fast growing population and economy, we are still far better than most European countries. Belgium is half the size yet they have double the amount of cars(due to their higher population of course). Thats 4 times worse than us. Belgium like England(50million in a country only twice the size as Ireland) is completely overpopulated and a greater threat to environmental damage than we are.

Car ownership is not as important in this context as car use. In 2000, Ireland was found to be the most car-dependent nation in the world: we drive 24,400km per year compared to the US average of 19,000km, the UK at 16,100km, France at 14,100km and Germany at 12,700km.

There is also little relevance in comparing countries in the global context - particularly just in order to say "well, they're worse than us". Each person contributes to the problem - each person must contribute to the solution.