Sinn Féin Councillor Conor D. McGuinness has criticised the government for squandering €50 million on carbon credits instead of using it for real climate action. He said money would be better spent on retrofitting schemes for older council housing stock, and measures aimed at improving the energy efficiency of public buildings and homes.
McGuinness said:
“This is what happens when successive governments pay lip service to climate action. We need to start making the necessary investments to reduce our emissions.
“Failing to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and to meet our targets means we have to buy allowances from countries that did.
“It’s like modern day indulgences – we get to go on emitting carbon dioxide and buy our way to meeting our targets. All we get for our €50 million is a piece of paper and absolution.
“The government have completely squandered taxpayers’ money. It will bring no material benefit to anyone in Ireland. Not a cent of this money will go towards insulation or energy efficient windows and doors.
“This €50million is the tip of the iceberg. It comes on top of hundreds of millions already squandered on purchasing carbon credits.
“With that money, we could have made ordinary people’s lives better by investing in renewable energy, retrofitting people’s homes, improving public transport.
“We have to move away from this carbon credit nonsense and empower families and communities to play their part in driving down our overall emissions.”
Cllr. Conor D. McGuinness 