Contents

Executive summary

This document was compiled by a coalition of environment NGOs working under the auspices of the Environment (Ecological) NGOS Core Funding Secretariat

The concept of transport as a discrete area of policy making is past. No more can new transport be framed or formed in isolation: since 24 January 2008 Ireland is under an EU obligation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 20% below 2005 levels by 2020. This 20% reduction will become legally binding by the end of the 2008. Subject to international agreements, there is likely to be provision for upward revision up to a 30% cut.

This requirement relates to what is known as the non-traded sector. The non-traded sector is composed of Ireland’s emissions less the 116 installations that are covered by the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. Transport and agriculture make up close to 70% of the non-traded sector. Even assuming agricultural emissions are cut in excess of 20%, transport emissions will still have to be cut by in or around 15% over a 12-year period. This requires a radical and rapid turnaround in a country in which emissions from transport have being rising at 5 – 7% in recent years.

The Department of Transport has issued a consultation document. In the view of the authors of this submission, the document conveys neither the scale of the challenge nor the urgency needed in response.

How should the government prioritise action? It is suggested that the government and all departments must embrace energy costing, whereby the energy saved by the project (the energy return) is measured against the energy consumed (the energy invested). The discipline of conducting how much carbon can be saved by a given measure must become the backbone of assessing sustainability.

Priority actions: A detailed programme of what is needed year-on-year is required. Given that 2008 and to a lesser extent 2009 will be ‘lead in’ years, we only have 10 years.

Short-term priorities (9 -12 months)

Realign all transport policies so that less climate polluting forms of transport are always favoured and funded; most climate-polluting forms to be taxed. The first steps are to aid people explore alternative – and healthier – form of transport:

Travel Plans

• Workplace Travel Plans (WTPs) can achieve a 10-15% switch from cars in favour of walking, cycling and public transport; the more one-to-one contact, and the better the information, the greater the shift.
• Workplace Travel Planning is already in place in Department of Transport; this should be extended across the civil service, with private sector urged to embrace WTPs. Walking or cycling on a daily commute, even some of the way, increases health. Walk and Cycle to School Programmes also achieve 10-15% switch to healthier modes; same should be introduced to all schools in Ireland.

Town Planning

• Within urban areas prioritise well-lit streets designed first and foremost for pedestrians and cyclists; in between urban areas, design first for public transport (buses and trains, in that order).
• Acknowledge that cycling research now shows cycle lane construction may be counterproductive: what’s vital is cutting traffic speeds. (Cycle lane is attractive along uninterrupted stretches of road but at junctions it increases conflict (i.e. accidents); this is because placing cyclists up on a height away from traffic between junctions means motorists are more likely to forget about them when cycle lane ends at junctions, and cyclists are thrust suddenly back into traffic).
• The deficit in rates is going to leave local government up to €2 billion short by 2010. Chambers Ireland, NESC and a host of other bodies from government parties to non-governmental groups have come out in favour of Land Value Taxation (LVT) as a means of capturing some of the increased value that public investment confers upon land. The Department of Finance has identified critical research needed to fully scope the introduction of LVT.
• In Dublin and Cork buses are needed, not just bus lanes, while Limerick, Galway and other large urban centres still do not have any significant stretches of bus corridors. It must be acknowledged that local opposition in the Gateway cities is significant and the High-Occupancy Lanes must be considered: in these lanes vehicles with two or more people as well as buses and taxis would be allowed. We must note the enormous shortfall in public transport capacity nationally. Measured by examining the records for the number of vehicles taxed each year, the ratio between the increase in car capacity as compared to bus between from the year 2000 to 2006 is 3.5 to 1 (411,540 versus 115,910).

Other measures

• Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey said of rail freight on 2 February 2008: “I also find it mystifying why more freight is not carried… If the committee [Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change] holds meetings on the transport and travel action plan, this is an area that might be focused on with the company”.
• The first step is to prevent CIE from scrapping engines used for rail freight: it takes 2 to 3 years to replace such equipment whereas refurbishment only takes 6 months.
• We advocate a survey of industry with a view to the provision of an all-island next-day rail-based container delivery service. A package linking 10 – 12 ‘inland ports’ (at major urban centres) and ports should be put to tender.

Medium-term priorities (1 -5 years)

• Raise fuel prices to roughly the levels prevailing in Northern Ireland but reduce the VAT take as oil continues to rise in order to provide cost certainty to the transport sector, at least for 6-month periods, (akin to a measure already in force in Portugal, and under consideration in Scotland).
• Increased taxation to be used to expand school walk and cycle programmes, workplace travel plans, video conferencing facilities, buses and trains.
• A Cap and Share system should be introduced with each person allocated an equal amount of carbon credits which they subsequently sell. These credits must be bought by companies in order to sell fuel, meaning that the price of fuel will go up by the cost of the credits. The key benefit is that those who walk, cycle and reduce their travel by combining journeys (so-called “trip-chaining”) will see a very tangible benefit, something absent from a carbon tax.
• Aviation is the most damaging way to travel due to the effect of releasing pollutants at high altitude, and the contention that aviation only accounts for 2% of global emissions is based on hopelessly outdated figures. Airports and flights are the most heavily subsidized form of transport in Ireland, and we need to find the means to wean ourselves off it.
• The government has been subsidising internal flights to the tune of €70 per flight (as compared with €7 for an inter-city rail journey or 42 cents for Bus Eireann journey). This Public Service Obligation scheme should be phased out when the next set of contracts ends in July 2011, to be replaced by high quality coach/rail services. Such services are likely to be more popular as they will serve key urban centres in Derry, Donegal, Sligo, Knock, Galway and Kerry, rather than simply airports, which by necessity are located away from population centres.
• A kerosene tax on domestic flights should be introduced from July 2011. This is already in force in Norway and the Netherlands. In Norway it is set at €0.07 a litre and revenue is the region of €60 – 70 million a year. Instead of losing over €20 million a year on internal flights the government should be gaining revenue in excess of €100 million, as well as helping achieve our environmental targets.
• The urgency and moral imperative to reduce carbon emissions and move away from an oil-reliant economy needs to be understood and implemented in the day-to-day actions of civil servants at all levels. It is great to see awareness growing within the civil service and this good work must continue.
• A prioritisation that can allow road projects to be finished ahead of time, while public transport falls far behind, must be reversed.

Long-term priorities

• It will be necessary to have detailed and imaginative contingency plans to allow for the ‘recycling’ of our national road system into a public transport system. The end result will be an Ireland free from reliance on the finite and politically unstable resource of oil.

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Sustainable Transport submission

Co-ordinator of behalf of EENGOCF: James Nix

For further information phone 086 8394129 or email jame...@gmail.com

[1] EENGOCF is Ireland’s legally constituted body composed of 28 non-governmental organisations working in the environmental sector. This document represents the views of the following Environmental NGOs: An Taisce, BirdWatch Ireland, Feasta, Friends of the Irish Environment, Friends of the Earth, Grian, Sustainable Ireland Co-operative and VOICE. Further details of all other ENGOs can be found at www.eengosec.ie.