Dr. Tadhg O'Mahony:

Yes. I will try to be brief. On the climate action plan, in terms of short-term actions progress has already been made on spending almost €1 million per day on cycling and walking. That needs to be embedded further. In addition, demand management and the result of the pandemic in terms of working from home, as Mr. Murphy mentioned, is very important. It is important because it has been acknowledged internationally that looking at 2030 is not the right way forward. We need to look at 2050 and look at 2030 and 2040 as the way-posts to decarbonisation. To do that, we will need better evidence of what we can do with avoid and shift. The estimates in the literature vary from a 20% to 50% reduction in emissions in terms of avoid and shift. There is potential that that will be higher in Ireland because our population growth is estimated and it is the higher population projection of 6.7 million. That could be higher. We do not know. We do not have the evidence.

In terms of cost-effectiveness analysis, relying only on such an analysis is not appropriate to understanding systemic transformations. It gives one the results and the implications in terms of the cost per unit carbon that is reduced but it does not answer any of the equity questions. It usually involves a forecast rather than alternative scenarios that explore avoid and shift so it is necessary but not sufficient.

In terms of pricing, I agree with Mr. Murphy. There is a conclusion in the literature that pricing is not enough. Carbon pricing is a supplemental measure that can prevent rebounds if the price of fuel comes down but the conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its transport chapter were very clear. We need to do the systemic long-term changes, with 2030 and 2040 changes supporting that, and carbon pricing can assist. It is not one's first measure no more than electric vehicles.