Election 2024: Labour tops climate action rankings in party manifestos
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The Labour Party has come out on top in an independent assessment of the climate action pledges in party manifestos.
According to a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth, Labour is the only party to receive an A grade ahead of the Social Democrats on an A- and the Greens on a B.
The three parties vying to provide the next Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, all failed the assessment, scoring an E grade.
All three lost points on energy, transport and food policies. Aontú's policies earned it a G rating.
The report was coordinated by UCD’s Earth Institute and commissioned by Friends of the Earth, with the assessment carried out by Dr Cara Augustenborg, Professor Hannah Daly and Professor Mary Murphy.
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The judges evaluated the manifestos of nine political parties against Friends of the Earth’s Programme for Faster and Fairer Climate Action 2025-2030.
The full report includes an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each party manifesto on climate, with the judges in their summary saying that the parties which received the highest scores in the assessment, especially Labour and Social Democrats, "placed climate action as a key policy priority; detailed a comprehensive set of policies to deliver faster and fairer decarbonisation; and viewed climate action as a lever to achieve positive outcomes in many other areas within their manifestos."
“It was promising to see several political parties, particularly the Labour Party, Social Democrats, the Green Party, and People Before Profit, considering climate issues in such depth.
Within their manifestos, all political parties committed to accelerating construction of renewable energy infrastructure, and most parties - with the exception of Aontú - placed household energy retrofitting high on their agendas.
“However, climate action is still only a core priority for smaller parties. While larger parties are starting to show good progress in committing to renewable energy and retrofitting homes, their commitment to genuine, transformative climate action is still weak."
Meanwhile, the National Bus and Rail Union has launched its election platform, saying that parties should prioritise tackling antisocial behaviour, a commitment to end the "race to the bottom" of privatising bus routes and the reinstatement of the Navan Rail Line, which was closed in 1958.
The union also says that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) should be put in place in Cork until a light rail is built.
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