The latest evidence on climate change shows that over the coming decades there will be major disruption to our way of life in Ireland, as well as across the globe. This week’s UN Climate Summit in Azerbaijan has shown how far apart world leaders are from agreeing the radical changes necessary to halt climate change in time to avert global disaster.
But I am a glass half-full person, and I welcome the progress made in Ireland in recent years in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is nowhere near enough – over the next five years, the new government will need to greatly up the pace of change. This should be a key focus of attention in the election. Instead, the issue has been sidelined in the campaign to date.
Previous election manifestos had solid environmental proposals. In 2016, both the Greens and the Labour Party stressed the urgency of tackling climate change, backed up with detailed proposals. In Labour’s case, the expertise and interest of outgoing energy minister Alex White was clearly evident in the policy detail. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael also committed to significant policy change in this area, but were shorter on detail. However climate didn’t feature in Sinn Féin’s manifesto that year.
The 2020 election campaign had much more focus on the need to decarbonise. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Greens all endorsed the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations. In particular, these parties endorsed that committee’s proposal that there should be a steady increase in carbon tax to 2030, to better reflect the environmental costs of fossil fuel use.
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Fine Gael’s 2020 manifesto had extensive coverage of climate policy. Once again, this reflected the interest and expertise of the outgoing minister for climate action, Richard Bruton, who had presided over important measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions during his tenure. Fianna Fáil’s 2020 manifesto also took the climate issue seriously. Sinn Féin gave it limited attention and opposed a carbon tax.
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With the climate issue prominent in the 2020 campaign, and a significant increase in Green seats, the Programme for Government that followed committed to targets and action to address climate change. The legislation setting targets has been delivered, but follow-through on actions at scale has been slower.
This time around, all parties have significant sections of their manifestos devoted to climate policy, yet it has received little attention over the first two weeks of the campaign. Most parties avoid spelling out any proposals that would involve hard choices for individuals or companies. Instead, most promise to spend more money in this area without, of course, identifying the taxes that will pay for them.
Agriculture counts for over a third of our greenhouse gas emissions. Real leadership would have offered proposals to help farmers change their business models to provide a secure, profitable and environmentally friendly future for the sector. However, in chasing the farming vote, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made commitments that are likely to result in more environmental damage. In backing a continuing derogation from the EU nitrates directive, the outcome, if successful, would be continuing water pollution and higher greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is the European Commission that calls the shots on this one.
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Higher fuel prices, while contributing to living costs, play a vital role in incentivising greener consumption and investment. The outgoing government has gradually raised carbon taxes and ringfenced the proceeds. Part of the revenue has gone to protect the most vulnerable from the resulting higher prices – more than €300 million in 2026 is going towards higher welfare payments, leaving the poorer half of the population better off than if there was no tax. Sinn Féin is opposed to the carbon tax, but does not explain how it would provide alternative funding for the disadvantaged. Its proposal to cut petrol taxes sends all the wrong signals on decarbonisation.
With the exception of the Social Democrats, the other parties do not comprehensively address how we can accelerate the switch to electric cars, where there has been a serious slowdown. Continuing to buy cars powered by fossil fuels at our current rate will make it impossible to meet our targets for reducing greenhouse gases.
An election campaign that is weak on climate does not bode well for the climate policies that will be written into the next Programme for Government. Appointing an energetic, committed and knowledgeable climate minister would help, but to take the hard decisions, it is usually essential to have all participating government parties already signed up.
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