"Green" policies are destroying this country

I must have been asleep, what taxes are you on about? the carbon tax is hardly killing people, i said it's 200 quid a year or something

Can we make this a sticky so we don’t have to keep explaining this point to the green acolytes? Mods?

The Greens will not be getting my vote. I'm fed up paying for their whims.

It's right there in those articles. Increased industrial output, electrification of households, etc etc. If you are really interested you could check out the generation fuel mix used in both India and China during the time periods mentioned to see just how large a role fossil fuels played. Here's a hint, it wasn't wind or solar.

You'll need to show me where the planet is becoming infertile and killing off all life on earth.

This period of madness only ends with the dissolution of the EU. It is not just about the Green TDs. With the exception of some independents, the rest of the body politic in Ireland has signed on to Green politics. Irish politicians have to walk the line between the multinationals (i.e. the golden goose) and the EU (i.e. Germany) and bring the public that voted for them into line. We saw this explicitly with the EU treaties (Lisbon & Nice) that were initially rejected, rather than accept the result, Brussels demanded that we vote the way they wanted, Irish politicians rolled up their sleeves aka "best boys in Europe" and got to work to make it happen. You can see this in the recent behavior of Michael Martin looking to raise his profile for the future, on the back of Green politics. The EU under Ursula von der Leyen and Frans Timmermans leadership are obsessed with their EU Green new deal. Even in Britain, the aborted government of prime minister Liz Truss tried to roll back, under prime minister Sunak quickly reversed that. The ex-prime ministers father Stanley Johnson is fully onboard with the Malthusian aspects of green policies. The zeitgeist will pass eventually.

Are you honestly trying to argue that the use of fossil fuels to give cheap energy hasn't improved the living standards of 100's of millions of people? Seriously, it's not a hill I'd choose to die on but each to their own.

There's a genuine debate to be had about how we replace the old methods, ie fossil fuels, with newer cleaner technologies. That should include economic, technical, and feasible options IMO. The simple fact is that we don't have the technology available to fully replace fossil fuels and won't for some time either as discussed already.

Should we demand poor nations just stop using fossil fuels? To me that's a reprehensible stance to take but one that is gaining more traction.

They are cutting them now as they always did, but from what I have seen not often enough.

They would most likely look better if they were cut as previous with billhooks, but that would most likely cost much more.

From that you should have no problem telling us how much the E.S.B. plan is going to cost, so why have you been so shy about divulging ?

Because you do not have a clue or because if you do and state it you would be laughed out of the place ?

You pay your taxes here? Do you live rural and have to drive to practically everywhere since there is minimal or zero public transport? Further exacerbated by a state that has been shutting down services in the regions and obliging people to travel. Do you heat your house by oil or coal? Carbon taxes may only cost urban dwellers little but cost rural folk a deal more.

It's almost like gas is the backbone of energy production across Europe.

Makes the decision to now pay for Russian gas through Azerbaijan and pay a premium for it all the more daft.

What a load of flannel from you yet again on marginal pricing.

If renewables are so cheap then why not just scrap the marginal pricing policy and let renewables compete on price ?

But then you know the answer to that don`t you! Or at least you should it`s been explained to you often enough even though you still choose to ignore it. It`s even pointed out in your own post from the section governing it you posted had you bothered to read it.

Marginal pricing has not reduced the price of electricity by a single cent. Renewable energy companies have been creaming it getting paid the same rate as gas and racking up massive profits. Now rather than doing what they were supposedly to do, scrap the policy, the E.U. have moved it on to either coal or oil where these companies will be paid at the rate of whichever is the most expensive, even if oil or coal only constitutes as little as a few percent of the total.

Marginal pricing is a scam. It has not or will ever reduce the price of electricity. It is there to ensure renewable energy companies make loads of money to invest in more renewables, to make further loads of money, all at the expense of the ordinary household consumer who are funding the scam. For all intents and purposes it`s nothing more than a pyramid scheme.