Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 379: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the costs expended to date in 2008 on the climate change awareness campaign; the anticipated costs for the remainder of 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33447/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The cost incurred to date of the Government's communications and awareness campaign on climate change, the Change Campaign, is €4,151,146 (exclusive of VAT), which will be funded from the Environment Fund. The anticipated costs for the remainder of the year will be of the order of €2,187,722 (exclusive of VAT).

The over-riding goal of the campaign is to drive significant behavioural change to reduce and avoid greenhouse gas emissions. The strategic starting point was to create a shared understanding of the challenge. This is being done through working with stakeholder groups, through TV, radio and outdoor advertising, the use of web-based tools, public events and intensive media engagement.

The Change Campaign differs from most other public information campaigns in that the approach includes a significant stakeholder engagement element. Much of the resources of this campaign are being used in working in partnership with stakeholders from various sectors to develop appropriate, relevant and useful tools and techniques to lower greenhouse gas emissions. A Carbon Management Tool for organizations, being developed as part of the campaign, is expected to be launched in the Spring.

The campaign website, www.change.ie, is an important vehicle for providing information to the public and the campaign encourages people to play their full part in contributing towards Ireland's response to the global challenge of climate change. Since I launched a user-friendly carbon calculator as a development of the website on 5 May 2008, almost 63,000 people have calculated their carbon count number.

Given the scale of the campaign and the importance of the issue, comprehensive evaluation and monitoring systems have been put in place to track the effectiveness of the campaign in delivering on its objectives.