I read with interest a poll covered by Newstalk last week which, in a nutshell, indicated that, as a nation, our feeling of personal responsibility towards climate change is waning.
Climate worriers, look away now, because according to the polling, 75% of people say they feel they have no personal responsibility for climate change.
The poll, carried out to mark Earth Day, saw a spokesperson for the group come on the radio and argue that politicians have to do more to combat the “fossil fuel price emergency.” The argument is that people want the Government to take action rather than themselves and this is why they feel no personal responsibility.
“It’s striking that the majority of Irish people think the Government isn’t doing enough,” Jerry MacEvilly, Director at Friends of the Earth Ireland, said.
“And I guess the key issue here is that people on their own, they simply are not in a position to not use their car in the morning, to not heat their home,” he added.
We hear almost incessantly, and on every State-funded broadcaster in this country, that people are willing to lower their standard of living to tackle climate change. They are happy with this and they want the government to do more. But is it true?
It seems to me that the secret cost of net zero has dawned on many of us in recent years, with the carbon tax becoming a national and political flashpoint in recent weeks. These are policies, after all, which have been enforced without democratic consent at the ballot box, the true cost of which is largely hidden. We’d all like if renewables were relaible and cheap – but they don’t seem to be living up to the promises made to win us over to net zero commitment.
How much will net zero cost, we ask? The truth is that nobody really seems to know. Government officials rustle up estimates, which can vary enormously – from €3 billion to €12 billion in EU compliance costs if planned measures or estimates are implemented; this being at the low end. The higher and more realistic estimation is somewhere closer to €26 billion, which is the bill we will foot if targets are missed.
Since Ireland is expected to miss its 2030 climate targets of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (we’ve only achieved around 23%, so we’re nowhere close) we are almost guaranteed to pay the eye-watering €26 billion fine. That is a profound cost to the Irish economy and to the people of Ireland. Yet there seems to be a strange form of social engineering at play to make sure we don’t bat an eyelid.
Life has become eye-wateringly expensive, the Government is taxing people to oblivion, and we still have huge shortfalls expected across agriculture, transport and energy sectors. How can we not be expected to throw in the towel?
And ready to throw in the towel we are. Signs held aloft at the fuel protests which swept across the country read, “Taxed to extinction,” “The working poor,” and “RIP Ireland.” That’s the level of desperation and stress and exasperation that exists on the ground.
The truth is that for all the talk about the glories of net zero and how far we’re willing to go to ‘save the planet,’ the media have fallen short in highlighting the known risks of running with such an approach. Such as higher bills for heat pumps and home insulation as well as an increase in the cost of household expenses.
We are now in the nothing short of an extraordinary scenario where the mammoth cost of reaching net zero (estimated by the National Electricity System Operator at around £3 trillion in the UK) is now deemed, in both Ireland and the UK, to be cheaper than falling behind and not achieving net zero.
There remains an opaqueness around the true cost, not just to the individual but to the economy as a whole. Original estimates made back in 2021 by the Climate Change Advisory Council have been revised in more recent work by the Central Bank and the Climate Council, as well as in the most recent carbon budgets 2040. Newer estimates slash cost projections for decarbonising, estimating Ireland’s cost will be lower than those earlier estimates. But constant reductions only help to undermine credibility. Are we dealing in facts or optimism?
A January 2026 report by the Institute of Economic Affairs, which dealt with the UK, argued that official figures from bodies including the Climate Change Committee (CCC) had used “fantasy” assumptions to estimate the true investment required.
The report essentially makes the case that net zero will cost the UK economy billions of pounds more than public officials have estimated – raising big questions about the so-called savings to be made from energy transition for households and businesses.
Here in Ireland, vague, enormous figures are thrown out without analysis or question. We’ve all been guilt-tripped into accepting and obliging the Government to just take the money, like a generous dad giving into his desperate teenager who needs the cash. €125 billion in public and private investment is required this decade alone, with the last Budget committing over €1.1 billion towards fresh climate initiatives. But how reliable are any of these figures when the dial is constantly moving?
Further, what’s clear to most of us is that net zero has a complete stranglehold over our entire economy – and it’s making all of us poorer in the process. As Nick Delahanty said on a Gript podcast not too long ago, forget about the “cost of doing business” crisis because we’re really talking about a “cost of government” crisis. No large company in Ireland can escape its grasp, with formal net zero policies making business more costly and less profitable.
Ireland adheres to international Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol standards for calculating and reporting emissions. This means that emissions are split into three categories – and companies are not considered truly net zero unless they meet their targets in every category.
While Scope one emissions – those directly produced by a company’s operations – are often acceptable and manageable for companies to tackle, things get more challenging with scope two and three. Scope two – the emissions that a company produces via its energy usage, means companies become responsible for their energy provider. Scope three makes things even more demanding, as it requires companies to strive for net zero through all indirect sources of emissions in their ‘value chain.’ This stems from anything from suppliers to customers and employees.
This is when a worker commuting to work in a diesel-fuelled four-wheel drive – as is their right, especially if they have a large family – might be an issue, and why firms are incentivised to offer an electric leasing scheme instead.
And as for the carbon tax, it has become a political flashpoint like no other, with awareness around the tax spiking in part thanks to astronomical prices at the petrol pumps. People are realising that the tax on carbon and broader net-zero policies simply increase energy costs for consumers. Not only that, but they more often than not fail to achieve the intended economic goals in an effective way.
That was well highlighted by Aontu’s Peadar Toibin in recent weeks, when he revealed via PQ that almost a quarter of a billion euro in the tax went to funding the State coffers, rather than towards actual environmental policies.
People increasingly feel they are being ruled by green-zealous overlords and that when they complain life is too expensive, they’re branded far-right, as we witnessed with the fuel protestors. But the fresh polling I referenced at the start of this article is indicative, I think, that people are sick and tired of being scrutinised for their climate impact. They just want to survive.
Farmers, our key suppliers, are buckling under rising costs, fed up with being pressured to reduce their emissions. Businesses can barely keep the lights on and homes across the country are having to ration heating.
The Irish media continually churn out the line that we’re too reliant on fossil fuels, but there’s two sides to that coin, and rushing away from fossil fuels will only increase our dependence on foreign energy imports. The true cost of the dizzying, State induced rush to net-zero meanwhile, has attracted minimal debate. As the fuel protests have shown, the ordinary, working people not only deserve to hear that debate, but they demand we have it.