Comment: Kamikaze Green Party sacrificed itself for climate goals
The Green Party Party Sole The Representative O’gorman will 34th Be Dáil Leader In Roderic
In other words, they knew they probably would not be re-elected so they threw themselves into their work at the expense of their own futures.
In 2020, the Green Party elected 12 TDs. In 2024, it is down to one. Party leader Roderic O’Gorman will be the sole Green Party representative in the 34th Dáil.
As someone who painstakingly tracked progress on environmental commitments in the 2020 programme for Government for the past four years, as part of Friends of the Earth’s annual Report Card of Government, I agree with the sentiment of the kamikaze politicians.
The programme for Government had nearly 300 environmental commitments requiring attention — far more than any previous programme.
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Simply getting the work done required laser focus and, for the most part, the work got done — with over 85% of those commitments addressed this year based on our analysis.
Most people believe the last Government did not do enough to advance climate action, and that opinion is confirmed by the many climate and environmental targets we have not achieved.
However, it would be impossible to point to any Government before this that did more with respect to climate action.
Much of the credit for that is due to the tireless work of the 12 Green Party TDs who comprised of just 14% of Government representatives.
Green-minded voters have expressed worry that the Green Party’s annihilation in the general election marks the end of progress on climate action.
There is much talk that climate was not a priority issue in this election. However, much has changed in the political landscape since 2020.
While evaluating the political party manifestos this year for climate action as part of UCD Earth Institute’s analysis for Friends of the Earth Ireland, it came as a shock to me to see both the Labour Party and Social Democrats outperform the Green Party in their climate commitments.
Not to say the Green Party’s B performance was bad, but Labour’s and the Social Democrats’s approach to the climate challenge was surprisingly impressive — with both big-picture thinking and specific implementation plans for faster and fairer climate action.
The Green Party has always said they did not want to be the only “green” party who prioritised climate action, and it appears that day has finally come.
Even the bigger political parties were good on some elements of climate action, particularly in developing renewable energy and grid infrastructure and supporting home energy retrofits, though they received failing grades for lacking sufficient commitment to phase out fossil fuels.
No matter what formation this new Government takes, there are several combinations of political parties who could prioritise climate action.
Cost-of-living was the dominant issue in this election, giving the impression that climate action was not important to voters or political parties.
However, within manifestos, all political parties — except Aontú — had at least one chapter outlining their approach to climate action.
Most even made the connection between high energy and transport bills and our over-reliance on imported fossil fuels, requiring urgent expansion of renewable energy and public transport infrastructure.
However, this connection was not as clearly made in discussions about the cost-of-living, which was a missed opportunity to join the dots between climate action and social justice.
While many, including myself, have advocated for carbon tax as one tool to influence cleaner purchasing decisions, it is a relatively small and somewhat ineffective tool in helping us make the enormous changes required to reduce emissions to the extent we have committed to in legislation.
Political leaders need to be pushed hard to explain exactly what they will do to reduce emissions in line with national and international commitments, rather than default to a lazy narrative about whether we should or should not have a carbon tax that has already existed in Ireland for 24 years.
The Green Party’s electoral losses may feel like a setback for climate advocates, but they do not spell the end of meaningful climate action.
Other parties have stepped up their climate commitments, signalling a broader political consensus on the need for urgent action. The task now is to hold this new Government accountable for delivering on these commitments while ensuring that climate remains central to public and political discourse.
Climate action is no longer the burden of one party — it is a shared responsibility that must transcend election cycles.
- Dr Cara Augustenborg is an assistant professor in environmental policy at UCD.