Taoiseach will not tell people to fly less despite rise in carbon emissions
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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he will not tell Irish people to fly less despite air travel contributing to a rise in Irish carbon emissions at the end of last year.
Data from Eurostat shows that Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions in the last three months of 2022 were up 12.3%, with the agency saying that emissions by Irish resident airlines are accounted for "even if the emissions are emitted outside Irish territory".
Speaking at the Council of Europe summit in Iceland, Mr Varadkar said that the overall impact of aviation on Irish emissions was relatively low but he believed that the sector should focus on efficiency and new fuels.
"Aviation accounts for roughly 2% to 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, so not negligible, but still not as much as many other sectors, and we are an island so, understandably, we're going to have higher emissions for aviation than other countries are going to have," said Mr Varadkar.
"The solution into the future is more efficient aircraft but also the development of synthetic or sustainable aviation fuels, and I want us to be a leader in doing exactly that.
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"So you know, rather than saying to people that they shouldn't fly, I think what we need to do is to continue to invest in more efficient aircraft and getting more ready to use those sustainable synthetic aviation fuels."
The summit has seen representatives of 47 countries fly to the island of Iceland, with some reports saying that 30 leaders brought a private aircraft — Mr Varadkar flew commercially — but the Taoiseach said that there is still a place for in-person summits such as this.
"I think we learned two things from the pandemic.
"First of all, that it is possible to do video conferences and to do them effectively and they're much more common than they used to be.
"But we've also learned that video conferences and remote meetings on their own aren't enough and we do actually need to be able to meet in person and have those sidebars and those private conversations and those informal meetings over dinner and lunch that make a big difference. So I think the pandemic has probably taught us that we need to do both really."
Ahead of a bilateral meeting with Icelandic prime minister Katrin Bjornsdottir, Mr Varadkar said that he would personally like to see Iceland stop the practice of whaling, but said that it was not up to him to tell other countries what to do.
"As you know, in Ireland, our seas are essentially a whale sanctuary, and we've seen the emergence of whales and dolphins and other sea life in recent years. And that's been great to see and it is an important part of tourism and also biodiversity. I would like to see an end to the practice of whaling.
"I understand, obviously, different countries make their own decisions.
"I'm going to have a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Iceland this afternoon. So that is going to be on the issues that we will discuss. We are not free to tell other countries how to run their own affairs, but what we mainly want to talk about is areas around co-operation. We share the oceans, and biodiversity is going to be part of that discussion."
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