€125 billion - the sum the Government believes is necessary to spend as Ireland’s contribution to saving humanity from climate change - is a large wad of cash by anyone’s measure.
But here are a few ways of measuring the massive cost that’s expected to be borne - it appears by a combination of the public and private sector - over the next decade. It is just over half the €240 billion that Ireland’s national debt is set to reach in 2022.
It is roughly the equivalent of two €64 billion bank bailouts or three €34 billion pandemics.
It is also less than the €165 billion in spending set out in the National Development Plan over the same period. But it seems identifiable climate action measures in that plan published just last month only amount to €50 billion, and the €125 bill far exceeds this. So that is already causing some headaches in Government.
As Jennifer Bray, Harry McGee and Kevin O’Sullivan report in our lead today, senior sources in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were taken aback by the cost proposed by Minister for Climate Action Eamon Ryan.
There is difficulty over a lack of detail in the proposals and over how much of the funding would come from the State and how much from the private sector.
Oscar Wilde famously wrote that a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. What price can be put on keeping the planet habitable for our children and grandchildren?
Expect the issue of the huge cost and who will pay to be examined as senior Government figures unveil the long-awaited Climate Action Plan today.
Our lead also details what is in the plan, which will see fossil-fuel heating systems no longer installed in public buildings and fresh targets for the electrification of the public transport fleet.
The plan also details the measures to be taken in various sectors to reduce emissions for the rest of the decade.
The public sector would be asked to lead by example as Ireland seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 before achieving net-zero carbon emissions in 2050.
The agriculture sector will be expected to achieve emissions reductions of 21 per cent, less than the 30 per cent that had been feared.
There are big numbers being thrown around at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow too.
Unprecedented amounts of private-sector finance of some $130 trillion (€112 trillion) from many of the world’s richest economies have been committed at the UN Cop26 summit to funding a reduction in carbon emissions linked to human activity to zero.
Although those kinds of sums put Ireland’s €125 billion in its ha’penny place, the private firms pledging the cash won’t have to deal with the politics of encouraging people to transform their lives to save the world.
Fears of another Brexit crisis
The rolling crises of the never-ending Brexit process rumble on amid growing fears in Dublin and Brussels the British government will shortly invoke article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, a move that officials say would plunge EU-UK relations, and British-Irish ties, into deep crisis.
As Political Editor Pat Leahy reports Taoiseach Micheál Martin issued an unprecedentedly blunt warning to the British government in the Dáil yesterday, describing any move to trigger article 16 as “irresponsible . . . unwise . . . reckless”, and saying it would have “far-reaching implications” for the relationship between Dublin and London.
Read more here.
Best Reads
Simon Carswell has the latest on the Covid-19 pandemic, with chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan saying it will be "a challenge" to get Covid-19 case numbers down from their current high levels to as low as possible before Christmas.
Holohan made a fresh plea to people to reduce their social contacts to stem the spread of the disease.
In Germany outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for tighter nationwide Covid-19 restrictions for unvaccinated people after her health minister warned this group is experiencing a "massive" fourth wave. Derek Scally has the report from Berlin.
Back home, there is a warning that schools could be forced to close on foot of Government plans to eliminate additional working hours introduced across the public service nearly a decade ago. Martin Wall and Carl O'Brien report.
Playbook
The Dáil starts at 9am with questions for Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan.
Then he’s due to put his Minister for Transport hat on and take questions in that guise from 10.30am.
Leaders’ Questions is at noon.
Then it’s Government business on various pieces of legislation for the rest of the day until a Topical Issues debate at 8.30pm.
The Public Accounts Committee meets at 9.30am to trawl through its correspondence and discuss its work programme.
The Committee on Disability Matters is to hear from autism organisations at 9.45am.
Officials from the Taoiseach’s Shared Island Unit will be at the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement at 1.30pm.
