I’m getting a lot of email about this today, so to save time, here are some of the points I made on Today FM’s Sunday Business Show. Before reading my points below, please read this, this, and maybe even buy this.
Posts Tagged: Greenhouse gas
10
Nov 08
Ireland’s CO2 Emissions, 1998-2006
Take a look at the data below, which comes from this recently released CO2 emissions report by the CSO. (You can get the data I used to make the chart here).
I’ve taken the largest emitters of CO2 by sector, and graphed them. The data pull out an interesting story. We see a mitigation of the levels of CO2 being pumped into the air my mining and manufacturing, and an increase in the levels of CO2 being emitted by residential areas. Overall, I have to say, though this picture looks bleak, and Ireland’s environmental record is dismal, to say the least, it could have been worse. The overall trend is upward, sadly, and projected to increase further.
I certainly was expecting increased levels of CO2 over the last 5 years above these numbers. Does anyone have a CO2 emissions data series for Ireland going back, say, to the 1970′s?
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28
Sep 08
A Nuclear Ireland?
Gerard posts on an issue I’ve been working on for something else—the need for a growing economy to provide itself with power without burning fossil fuels. Even together, solar, wind, wave, hydroelectric, and other greener technologies aren’t yet up to the task of supplying Ireland’s needs, as the government’s 2007 white paper has shown. As James Lovelock has controversially written, in the short to medium term, say 25 years or so, nuclear power is the only option for advanced economies to grow without fossil fuels.
Let me elaborate.
Ireland has repeatedly rejected the construction of a nuclear power plant, for a host of reasons, most of them irrational, take this for example, or factually incorrect, see this, or just twaddle, see this.
I think if the benefits of nuclear power were put to the Irish people in a consistent and intelligent way, they would respond with a different answer.
The benefits of nuclear power are cheap, reliable energy which is independent of fossil fuel usage and, as we’ve seen, price changes. Not only does nuclear power have negligible CO2 (global warming) emissions, but Western nuclear power has never killed a member of the public or had any measurable impact on public health, miles of column inches to the contrary. France is the shining example of the benefits of nuclear power—78% of French electricity is generated using nuclear fuel.
The costs of nuclear power are, in this order, high level waste disposal, risk of proliferation, severe accidents, and terrorism. Obviously, Ireland would not be subject to most of these risks as it is a (largely) neutral country.
Running out of uranium isn’t really an issue either: there are approximately 14,750,000 tonnes of the stuff on Earth. Last year we used close to 67,000 tonnes of this. With type four fast breeder reactor technology, we’d have practically unlimited energy resources into the 22nd century [2].
Right now, our CO2 emission are 24% higher than our 1990 level. Our Kyoto protocol agreement is for 13% increases, and our energy needs are set to increase by 25% by 2015 [1]. So this is not a problem which will go away, as this ESRI report shows. Ireland is contributing to climate change in much the same way as India and China, albeit on a smaller scale.
Pollution is the price of development.
It’s fair to say nuclear power isn’t the solution, but there is no solution in the medium term without it, as we transition away from fossil fuel power solutions. Those electric cars won’t charge themselves.
I’m not a fan of nuclear power, but there are ways to buy this power from abroad. As Gerard reports, a 25bn pound investment in nuclear power will take place in the UK in the next 10 years, thanks to a recent takeover. This power will need buyers. If it is priced properly, Ireland might be in a position to purchase the benefits of nuclear power without incurring many of its costs.
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22
Aug 08
More on Behavioural Economics being Applied to Real World Policies
Yesterday I wrote a small piece about using Nudge-inspired policies to improve the experience of first time parenting. Today, Martin from the Geary blog tells us
“A London council is to pilot policies based on a new theory of behavioural economics in a bid to tackle litter, reduce carbon emissions and increase recycling rates, it has emerged. The London Borough of Barnet has been given a reported £100,000 by the Department of Communities and Local Government to try out new nudge economics policies.”
link, via Martin @ Geary
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