GRIAN MEDIA RELEASE

Dublin, Monday 18th November 11:00GMT

Ireland has slipped backward several places in the annual NGO assessment of international action against climate change, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI, see: http://germanwatch.org/en/7677) released today at the beginning of the second week of crucial UN climate negotiations taking place in Warsaw, Poland.

The slippage was caused by a rise in Irish emissions in 2012 (the most recent data and also the first year fully under the current government's control), re-enforced by continuing government policy stasis (including complete absence of a current national climate change strategy), with both factors set against continuing improvement by comparable other countries (such as Portugal which has continued to ramp up its renewable energy delivery impressively, despite suffering from a fiscal crisis even worse than Ireland's).

The CCPI, compiled annually jointly by Germanwatch and CAN-Europe (Climate Action Network Europe, see Note 1) covers 58 countries collectively accounting for over 90% of global emissions.

This year's assessment (CCPI 2014) is the eight edition of the index, which has been produced annually by NGO's since 2005. Countries in the CCPI are ranked according to a comprehensive and carefully-designed set of indicators including empirical data on levels of emissions per capita, national emission trends, deployment of renewable energy resources, commitment to energy efficiency measures, and national policy assessments carried out by in-country experts. This year’s policy review for Ireland was performed, as in previous years, by Grian.

Ireland is in 12th postion in the CCPI this year, back to where its was in 2011, following two years of slight improvement, mostly due to falling emissions largely caused by economic recession (not policy initiatives which the index is designed to track  and encourage).

In a statement issued in Dublin today, Pat Finnegan, Co-ordinator of Grian, said:

"This slippage in Irish government performance against climate change is extremely disappointing. It is quite frankly not the sort of news the world needs to hear coming from Ireland, given the current context of both the post-Haiyan devastation, and the apparently very limited progress in the current climate negotiations going on in Warsaw."

"The rise in Irish emissions reflected in the index this year is almost precisely as predicted by Grian last year (Note 2). Further, the reasons for the rise in emissions are even more depressing. The most recent Irish emissions inventory (Note 3) shows a rise in the use of coal for electricity, and a fall in the use of wind energy -  almost exactly the opposite of what the government should be doing in the face of the now overwhelming need to confront climate change explicitly and designedly."

"The government, as the ultimate sole owner of both the monster coal-burning plant in Moneypoint and the national grid, which has been seriously curtailing access to it by wind energy for some time now, has both causes for the rise in emissions absolutely within its control. It needs to do better."

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For the full CCPI 2014 report and further detail see: http://germanwatch.org/en/7677

For further info, opinion, etc. contact: PAT FINNEGAN (Co-ordinator, Grian)

Note 1: Germanwatch has been actively promoting global equity and the preservation of livelihoods since 1991. (See:  www.germanwatch.org ).  Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe (www.climnet.org) is recognised as Europe‘s leading civil society network working on climate and energy issues. With over 100 members in 25 European countries, CAN-Europe unites to work to prevent dangerous climate change, and to promote sustainable energy and environment policy in Europe. Grian (www.grian.ie) is CAN-Europe's longest standing Irish member (since 2001).

Note 2: See:

 http://www.grian.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=320&Itemid=2

Note 3: See:

EPA - Higher greenhouse gas emissions in 2012
http://www.epa.ie/newsandevents/news/name,52406,en.html

EPA  - Provisional 1990-2012 IRL GHG Inventory October_finalv2
http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/air/airemissions/GHG_1990-2012_October_finalv2.pdf