Congestion Charges Again
Some things are very predictable. We will have traffic jams in September. It will rain in the Summer. Kilkenny will win the hurling. And at regular intervals, some worthy body or other will recommend extra taxes on cars. This time it’s the Institute of International & European Affairs through its recent report The Climate Change Challenge – Strategic Issues, Options and Implications for Ireland.
People accept that climate change is a reality and we have to deal with it, writes public affairs manager Conor Faughnan. For Ireland, that means using less – a lot less – fossil fuel. But you don’t get from there to justifying anti-car taxes, especially when these measures have no carbon benefit whatsoever.
Among the measures proposed are a carbon tax on fuel and a tax on parking spaces in the city centre. The report notes that emissions from the Transport Sector have increased by 160% since 1990, and warns in sinister terms that this trend has to be addressed.
The above paragraph annoys me in half a dozen different ways. It supposes that Transport, and specifically car use, is our major problem and that taxing cars will fix it. It also hints that car use is like a modern cancer – we must rid ourselves of it before we perish. Recalcitrant motorists should be ashamed of themselves and shuffle off to the edges of society, like smokers shivering outside the pub.
Let’s take a myth-busting look at some of the comments. Firstly, the ‘Transport Sector’ has grown along with the entire economy. Ireland has more than doubled its economic output since 1990. We have no rail network to speak of, so we move 95% of all of our goods and products by road. The ‘explosion’ in transport emissions simply means that Transport grew as well. We presumably like having economic growth and we would not want Ireland to shrink back to what it was emerging from the 80s.
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Note also that this report, like others before it, speaks of the ‘Transport Sector’ but never spells out how much of that sector is made up by the emissions from private cars. Data from the European Environment Agency shows that across the EU the Transport Sector generates 21% of CO2. The private car is estimated to contribute 14%, or two thirds of the Transport figure. In Ireland, the Transport sector accounts for 19% of emissions. We make electricity almost exclusively by burning fossil fuels, worsening our footprint and meaning that for us the private car’s share of CO2 generated is even less than that 14%. A figure in the region of 12% is a reasonable guess, but my all means correct me if you know better.
I accept, as I think do most AA members, that car users have to do their bit. The traffic congestion problem is reason enough but in any case we all want to see fewer cars in use for commuting in the cities especially in Dublin. For that to happen we have to have alternatives.
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According to the DTO, in the Dublin region 56% of all commuters use private car while about 20% use public transport. By international standards this is absolutely ridiculous. In every other city in the world those proportions are reversed, with the great bulk of commuters using mass public transit especially rail and metro. In London for example 87% of all commuters were already using public transport before the congestion charge was introduced.
No doubt you have spotted the flaw in the great plan. Dublin does not have the public transport capacity. If we all switched away from cars tomorrow the city could come no-where near to coping. That reality is consistently ignored by voices in the debate that are determined to think of the car as the bad guy.
If Dublin had a congestion charge tomorrow, the net effect would do nothing for the environment. It would be a strong disincentive for people to work in the city and it would add to business costs. But it would not force people onto non-existent Metro and Luas services.
The same argument holds for fuel taxes. We have in effect got a Carbon Levy already. When you buy a litre of petrol 55% or so of the price is tax. Doesn’t matter what the tax is called. In 2008 we have seen fuel prices jump from €1.13 per litre to €1.34 without having any effect on demand. Fiscal instruments of this sort do not work. They turn an environmental issue into a tax collection mechanism without addressing the problem.
There are things that do work, and we should support them. Its early days but it does look as if the car tax changes from July are indeed encouraging people to buy cleaner and greener cars. Pushed by public demand and EU pressure, car manufacturers are delivering astonishing improvements in carbon footprint for cars and that is only going to get better.
Electric cars are being developed by all the major manufacturers and will be a big part of our future, especially in the cities. No doubt the AA will still be needed to fix them.
More simply, we can provide cycle lanes. We can provide park and ride sites. We can stop charging commuters who park at Dart stations. We can encourage car sharing by trying car pool lanes. Lots of good stuff can be done.
Of all the problem sectors associated with CO2 none has done more to address the issue than the private car. Motorists are doing their bit. We’d like some recognition of this, and for the sake of all of us who live in this country and on this planet we would like to see more attention focussed on measures that genuinely improve the environment rather than simply looking to charge us more taxes.