Green Economy, Green Jobs
It virtually goes without saying these days that post-Independent Ireland has reached a critical point in its history. With the trauma of the crash, and the sobering consequences of dealing with ongoing repercussions, a young person today may be forgiven for wondering what kind of future they might reasonably expect in this country. Faith in the political system has reached a low point – as lamentable as that may be, if people start to lose faith in our own ability to lift ourselves out of this crisis we have a far, far greater problem.
I believe that we have much to be optimistic about, in spite of all that’s happened. Between our existing skill and infrastructure, and our vast potential, we can not only return Ireland to prosperity – if we make the right policy choices now we can also make this prosperity sustainable. In short, we must do what many countries have already started to do – build a smarter, greener economy.
So how do we accomplish this? Looking at Ireland’s productive capacity, we find that large amounts of our economic activity is concentrated in a few fields; Agriculture, Tourism, Energy, Manufacturing, Finance, and Traded Services. It’s true these sectors are suffering right now, however in each lie vast opportunities for sustainable growth, and thousands of new jobs.
Establishing Ireland’s green agricultural credentials I believe is vital to giving Irish produce a competitive advantage over other mass-produced, intensively-manufactured foodstuffs in Europe and North America. Similarly, projecting an image of Ireland as environmentally pristine has always been one of our main tourist draws. For an industry worth €8bn per annum – we simply must continue to ensure that our environment is maintained to the highest possible standards.
Energy production is the area most vital to achieving a sustainable recovery, and in this area I’m glad to say that we are making the right decisions. Ireland is ranked fifth in the EU for the amount of electricity generated from wind (per capita), and we’re climbing those ranks quickly. We’re in the process of testing ocean-energy devices – a costly endeavour, but one with potentially astronomical returns.
Establishing Ireland’s energy strategy will not only provide thousands of short and medium term jobs, it will also create an entirely new export industry sustaining further thousands of jobs. What’s more; it will be a renewable export industry – something even Saudi Arabia doesn’t have.
Similarly, investing now in a Smart Grid will enabling Ireland to achieve the highest levels of efficiency in our power consumption – our investment to date is already attracting high-tech ICT companies such as IBM; it’s reducing the overheads for business; and it’s helping to reduce our overall emissions.
In manufacturing, it is imperative that we broaden our capacity beyond the established industries of medical & pharma and ICT. Making Ireland an attractive location to build sustainable, environmentally-friendly industry is the essential step in achieving this. We must also develop our considerable experience in Financial Services to help construct a new Green IFSC – a global centre for carbon trading and greentech investment corporations. In tandem with developing indigenous energy potential for export, the benefits could be enormous.
In spite of the recession, it is striking that Ireland has still managed to draw in the largest global internet service corporations – Google, Ebay, Facebook and Microsoft. In expanding our digital infrastructure, we’re well placed to maintain these companies and continue to attract more. Our new exemplar network, activated just this summer, can handle up to 2.5 terabytes of data. That’s twice the volume on the entire London phone system. And it’s just the beginning. Developing this technology will allow us to develop sophisticated cloud-computing networks on which many companies can trade digital services – social networking, financial trading, and consumer purchases. Eventually all powered, of course, from our vast renewable potential.
The possibilities are exciting; however it is absolutely critical that we act now. Other countries with significant resources are already competing with us for the chance to develop the green economy first. Whoever gains the advantage will surely keep it in the long run. We must recognise that this advantage is ours for the taking, today.
