CLIMATE ACTION MEANS HARD CHOICES LIE AHEAD FOR US ALL
COALITION leaders took a brief break from the Covid crisis yesterday to deal with the other catastrophe facing every country in the world: climate change. The people in Clifden, Co Galway, know the disastrous consequences of the extreme weather events associated with such change after they experienced flash floods last month. So do residents in French and Italian Alpine villages where relentless rain this month led to at least 12 deaths, with another 20 people still missing. At the other extreme are the wildfires scorching large tracts of California.
Until now, Ireland has been one of the laggards when it comes to tackling the issue, but yesterday’s Climate Action Bill may change all that – assuming it is passed by the Oireachtas and, more importantly, its ambitious targets are met.
The presence of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste at the launch of the legislation signals their parties’ support for its main provisions. It commits the State, in a legally-binding way, to making Ireland carbon neutral in 30 years through a succession of five-year economy-wide carbon budgets, starting next year. A statutory Climate Action Advisory Council will make recommendations on how these carbon budgets will be achieved. Local authorities will have to prepare individual climate action plans that will include mitigation and adaptation measures.
That’s all very well, but we have heard strong promises in the past. Former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey ruefully recalls that when he went around to various departments tasked with implementing previous government policies in this area, they often offered reasons why it was not possible to make the necessary changes just yet.
We will know the strength of the opposition to Environment Minister Eamon Ryan’s bill when it goes through the Dáil and Seanad, and when its provisions come to be implemented. The political reality is that hard decisions lie ahead that will affect voters and their way of life.
The bill’s implications are incredibly far-reaching. Agriculture, transport, house-building and energy use will all have to change. It was easy to predict some of the reaction, from those who say the draft legislation is not strong enough to those who claim it will damage areas such as agriculture.
But other events are already having an impact on agriculture – where the beef industry, in particular, is in the doldrums. The cost of beef in the supermarkets may be a boon to hard-pressed families, but it’s obvious that the low prices farmers get for their hard work cannot continue indefinitely.
Professor John FitzGerald, the chairman of the independent Climate Change Advisory Council, yesterday suggested that beef farmers may have to become foresters to make a living. The remark may have been somewhat tongue in cheek, and it will not go down well in some quarters, but if nothing else it is indicative of the radical thinking that must be countenanced in the coming decades.
The cliché that we are all in this together is as true of dealing with climate change as it is of tacking the coronavirus.
Until now, Ireland has been one of the laggards when it comes to tackling the issue