About Climate Change
Climate change is a challenge that faces us all. Manmade emissions of greenhouse gases – a by-product of many economic activities – are accumulating in the atmosphere and causing the average temperature of the Earth to rise. This could have serious economic, social and environmental consequences for everyone on the planet. The findings from the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that an 80-95% reduction in industrialised countries’ greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels is required in order to reduce the risk of dangerous and potentially catastrophic climate change.
 
Cap and Share
Climate change represents an enormous challenge to all of us in Ireland in the near future. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors in accordance with our European and international commitments. While some sectors such as power generation and large industry are included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), others, such as transport, residential housing and agriculture are not and new policy measures are needed to reduce emissions in these sectors also. In particular, individual actions will be needed to achieve the emissions reductions under discussion in Europe by 2020 in the non-trading sectors. Innovative and fair policies are necessary to stimulate the scale of the reductions required.

Cap and share is an idea proposed in Ireland by the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (FEASTA) which is based on the argument that each citizen would be given a carbon emissions allowance allocation, with the total of such allocations amounting to the desired cap. Essentially, the scheme would operate similarly to a carbon levy but would address the problem of public acceptability since the cap is placed on upstream emissions from primary fossil fuel suppliers to the sectors included in the scheme and certificates would be issued to all adults entitling them to an equal share of the emissions permitted under that year’s cap. These certificates could then be sold to the fossil fuel suppliers via an intermediary such as a bank or post office. By capping emissions upstream the price of emissions is built into the price of fossil fuels which are passed through to the consumer. The consumer has an incentive to use less fossil fuel than the average amount for which he is compensated through the sale of the certificates. More information at www.capandshare.org.

Policy Background
Ireland is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (http://www.unfccc.org/) and the Kyoto Protocol, the main international treaty which commits industrialised countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the EU burden sharing agreement, Ireland is obliged to limit its greenhouse gas emissions to 13 percent above 1990 levels over the period 2008-2012. The Government’s revised National Climate Change Strategy outlines how Ireland intends to meet this target.

The EU reached agreement on its Climate Change and Energy Package on 17 December 2008 with the outcome resulting in the setting of three new legally binding targets each to be achieved by 2020. This includes a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions based on 1990 levels (30 % if other major emitting countries of the world agree to undertake similar commitments), 20% penetration target of renewable energy in final energy consumption and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency.

The implications of this EU package for Ireland are significant. As a member of the European Community, Ireland is legally bound to meeting the new targets that have been set. These targets are challenging and cut across all sectors of the economy. The greenhouse gas emissions target is divided between those sectors involved in emissions trading (mainly power generation and large industry) and those sectors outside of the scheme (mainly transport, agriculture, waste and buildings). For the non-trading sector, Ireland has been allocated a demanding reduction target of 20% on 2005 levels to be achieved by 2020. For renewables, Ireland has been assigned an equally challenging target for renewable energy to constitute 16% of final energy consumption by 2020. 

Comhar's Work
Comhar SDC's role involves encouraging good policy for reducing emmissions and climate change and promoting a low carbon society. Some activities that Comhar has been involved in include;

• Comhar provided recommendations to government on the National Climate Change strategy.
  
• Comhar published a briefing paper on adapting to climate change, taking into account international lessons.
• In November 2008, Comhar SDC made recommendations to Department of Finance on the inclusion of carbon pricing in capital project appraisal.
• Comhar SDC commissioned research on Cap and Share as a policy instrument to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Irish residential and transport sectors.