Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1501: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount The Power of One and change.ie campaigns cost; the number of persons that found out what their carbon number was; if any assessment was carried out to find out if the campaign was cost effective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33161/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Over a 23 month period, phase one of the Change.ie campaign raised awareness of the importance of climate change and engaged people and organisations across the country in changing their behaviour. 138,870 individuals have calculated their carbon number using the campaign's personal calculator and 588 organisations have used the business carbon management tool.

Three rounds of dedicated research commissioned to track awareness and receptiveness of the campaign's messages demonstrate that it succeeded in raising awareness of climate change and effectively engaged people and organisations across Ireland in changing their behaviour. Specifically, the research shows that: three out of four Irish people believe that climate change is coming about as a result of human behaviour rather than as a natural process; there is 100% awareness of at least one initiative undertaken under the National Climate Change Strategy 2007-2012; the campaign has motivated 70% of Irish people to take steps to reduce their carbon number; and just three months after the campaign commenced, seven out of ten people in Ireland felt "it would be easy to take corrective action to reduce their carbon number".

Given current economic circumstances, I decided in 2009 to conclude phase one of the campaign; the "Change" brand has been maintained by my Department and phase two of the campaign is being managed internally. Among the measures involved are the development of a Greening Communities Network and the planned dissemination of a climate change educational resource across the primary school network. The Change.ie website content has been integrated into the climate change content of the www.ENFO.ie site and will continue to be developed by An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, with the support of my Department, while the calculators continue to be maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Information in respect of the Power of One energy efficiency campaign is available from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, which manages that initiative.

The costs of the change.ie campaign to date are: