The Minister must provide assurances, grounded in something other than his cheery optimism, that targets can be achieved
Environment Minister Eamon Ryan must clarify if the government will meet its climate action targets this year or not, according to Social Democrats Climate Spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore.
“Yesterday, we had a further devastating report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warned there would be catastrophic consequences for humanity if we fail to act on climate change.
“However, in an interview with RTE’s Drivetime yesterday evening, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan appeared to concede the government will miss its climate action targets this year. When it was put to him that the EPA has predicted that Ireland will fail to reduce its emissions this year, the Minister could only say “we have to accelerate”.
“The Minister must now level with people and clarify whether the government will meet its climate action targets this year or not. We missed our target last year, despite a huge shutdown in the economy precipitated by the pandemic, and it would be disastrous for our climate action plan if our targets were to be missed again this year.
“We have a legal, and moral, obligation to reduce our emissions by 51pc by 2030. The IPCC report is clear about the cost of delay and failure – we will “miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”. The stakes could not be higher.
“Publishing reports, or glossy plans, which outline notional ways to reduce our emissions is useless if those plans are not implemented. The Minister must provide assurances, grounded in something other than his cheery optimism, that the targets the government has set for this year can be achieved.”
1 March, 2022
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