Over 69% of rural households have no alternative transport option if road fuel taxes went up 10%, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Today (Monday, November 1) the Household Environmental Behaviours – Environmental Concerns Quarter 3 2021 report has been published, which analyses the attitudes and concerns of Irish households in relation to the environment.

The survey covered four main topics: environmental concerns; visits to nature areas; waste and recycling; and energy use.

The results being presented today are in the first of four reports that are being published to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division of the CSO, Clare O’Hara, commented on the results of the survey:

“The issue that received the highest proportion of ‘very important’ responses was water pollution.

“Over 79% of Irish households rated this issue as being very important. Plastic waste was the second most highly-rated issue at 74%.

“Over 69% of Irish households rated climate change as very important.

“Around 60% of urban households rated a lack of urban green spaces as a very important issue for them. Rural households gave this topic a lower rating at 39%.”

No alternative means of transport for rural households

The survey sample included a representative mix of owner-occupied, private-rented and local authority-rented dwellings. Households from every county were included in the survey.

”The report found that 73% of households would support stricter air pollution controls on industrial and energy-production activities as the most effective means of tackling problems of air quality,” O’Hara continued.

“In contrast, only 29% of households supported the introduction of traffic restrictions such as congestion charges and low-emission zones in polluted cities.”

Householders were also asked how they would respond if tax on road transport fuels was increased by 10%.

O’Hara said that over 69% of rural households indicated that they would continue to use their vehicle to the same extent because they “have no alternative means of transport”.

Also, “over 31% of households indicated that they would not make any energy-efficiency improvements to their home, if tax on home heating fuels was increased by 10%, because of the up-front cost”.

Meanwhile, “almost two-thirds of households [62%] regarded taking biodiversity concerns into account when new infrastructure investments were being planned as the most effective way to protect biodiversity”.

Greenhouse gas emissions

The CSO also published data on greenhouse gas emissions today. The figures show that emissions of all air pollutants fell in 2019.

The services sector, which includes road and air transport, produced 31% of greenhouse gas emissions by resident units in 2019.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector produced 28% of emissions, while the industry sector accounted for 24% of the total. The remaining 17% of greenhouse gas emissions were emitted by households.

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, forestry and fishing were at their highest of the period 2013-2019 in 2018 at 22.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Emissions from the sector increased in each year from 2015 to 2018 inclusive, then fell by 4% in 2019.