We may keep hiking fuel taxes to save the planet, says Bruton
GOVERNMENT will consider an annual hike to the carbon tax if emission targets are not met, Minister Richard Bruton has said.
Last year, the Economic and Social Research Institute predicted the charge would have to rise from €100 per person a year to €1,500 if Ireland is to reach its 2030 reduction targets.
And following a recommendation by the International Energy Agency (IEA) yesterday, Minister Bruton said Government will consider introducing ‘automatic upward adjustment’ in carbon tax if Ireland fails to meet its emission targets each year.
The Environment Minister has signalled the levy could be increased in the 2020 budget, after the Government decided against introducing a widely anticipated hike last year.
‘They believe that if we’re not reaching a target we should consider upping to, if you like, have the carbon price responding to an annual performance. That is open to Decisions: Richard Bruton consideration,’ he said. ‘That’s a matter for the Minister for Finance. But I think it’s been very clear, both from the Taoiseach and myself, that a carbon trajectory will be put in place – that it won’t happen this year, but that it will be one of the issues considered in the 2020 budget.’
Minister Bruton said it was important taxpayers would have an idea of where carbon tax price increases were likely to end up. ‘We want to see a clear trajectory so people have an idea of where carbon price is going,’ he said.
Yesterday, he downplayed suggestions the charge could be targeted towards emissions-heavy sectors, as was also recommended by the IEA. He warned that the tax, designed to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging behavioural changes, could collapse altogether if individual communities feel they are being unfairly targeted.
‘If we find that our strategy starts to see people peel off and say this is anti-our community, or anti-some other community, we won’t succeed in achieving what needs to be achieved here,’ he said.
Mr Bruton has also signalled that measures requiring rental properties to be highly energyefficient will also be considered by Government, but conceded this will be difficult to implement in ‘a market that is already stressed’. He said: ‘As you know there are immediate pressures in the rental market, which create a difficulty in imposing very significant new obligations.
‘But at the same time we need to find a credible road map that will see our rental property sector adopting high energy standards.’
The IEA acknowledged Ireland had made significant progress in this area in recent years, but the review recommended concrete plans be put in place to cut carbon emissions as the country remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
Yesterday’s report said Ireland is not on course to meet its mandatory emissions reduction and renewable energy targets for 2020, and questioned the country’s ability to meet its 2030 targets.
It also warned that expected population growth of up to 20% by 2040 will put substantial pressure on existing infrastructure and increases the importance of meeting emissions reduction targets.
Last November, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the ESRI analysis that a carbon tax increase to €1,500 per person by 2030 was ‘way off the mark’ and that the Government had no intention of raising the tax to that level. However, he told Green Party leader Eamon Ryan that there would have to be increases in the tax to meet our climate obligations.
‘Need a credible road map’