City Council warned ring road would increase carbon emissions

Galway City Tribune – The planned Galway City Ring Road will contribute further to global warming, a city community group has said.

Cosain, the Community Road Safety and Information Network, said Galway City Council’s response to climate change should be policies that wean people off private motorised transport in favour of walking and cycling.

In its submission on the Council’s draft Climate Adaptation Strategy, Cosain accuses the local authority of not taking climate change seriously enough.

It points out that official documents supporting plans for the new road confirm it will increase CO2 emissions by 37%.

The 37% increase in CO2 was stated in the government-approved Business Case for the proposed road, released to Cosain following a Freedom of Information request. This was subsequently confirmed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in a letter to Catherine Connolly TD, who had submitted a Parliamentary Question on the subject.

TII stated that approximately 26,000 tonnes of CO2 would be generated by the proposed road in the opening year, and 35,800 tonnes by 2039 “with the main contributory factor being an increase in vehicle kilometres travelled”.

The document also projected that modal share for peak hour car commuting would increase to 67.3% by 2039, while just 5% of all commutes would be by bus. The modal share for cycle commuting would reduce, decreasing to 2.8% in 2039.
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