Detailed plan for climate action to come in autumn, says Taoiseach

"Its publication could not be more significant or timely, detailing the increasingly dangerous future that is ahead of us, unless action is taken by all of us, now.

For the first time, with the highest levels of confidence, scientists assert that human activity is responsible for the warming that we are seeing on our planet today and its related devastating impacts.

"The report is equally clear in describing the increases in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, heatwaves, flooding, droughts, and wildfires that we can expect to experience from this increased warming effect. Its publication truly is a ‘code red for humanity’.

"For the first time, the IPCC have broken these impacts down to a regional level, showing that climate change will affect us all. 

"Our ways of life — urban, coastal, and rural — will all be impacted by climate change, with increasingly devastating consequences for lives, livelihoods and nature unless immediate action is taken."

Ireland's recently-passed Climate Action Bill will be met with a plan to be published in the coming months which will set out just how the country will reach its emissions targets, he added. 

"The Climate Action Plan 2021 will be published this autumn and will reflect our higher level emissions reduction ambition and will set out the direction of Ireland’s response to the deepening climate crisis. 

We will set out in detail, sector by sector, the targets and steps necessary to achieve our overall objectives.

"The IPCC warns that the window of opportunity to act is closing. The time to act is now and Government is doing so.

"But Government on its own cannot make the difference required. In our Republic, every citizen, industry, and community must embrace this challenge and make the decisions necessary for positive change."

Meanwhile, opposition politicians have called for more focus on the energy usage of data centres in Ireland. 

The calls are in response to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) publishing letters showing that Ireland will use up to six temporary gas generating units at the North Wall ESB site to meet energy demands over the winter period. 

Approving the plan for the CRU and Eirgrid, Energy Minister Eamon Ryan said that the situation was "a likely and substantial risk to the security of supply" this winter.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on climate justice, Senator Lynn Boylan, said the centres were a major use of power while Social Democrats climate spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore called for a moratorium on their construction.