Election 2024: Action on climate change might be painful, but we need to do it
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The next Government has been warned it must change tack from the previous coalition on vital climate measures, as the pace of change has been “nowhere near fast enough”.
Professor Peter Thorne, the director of the Icarus climate research centre at Maynooth University and a member of Ireland’s Climate Change Advisory Council, urged policymakers to adapt their approach given the urgency of the situation.
“We’re still not fundamentally understanding that action now might be painful, but we need to do it,” he said.
The writing is effectively already on the wall for the next government as so much of the expert commentary points towards us failing to meet our legally binding 2030 obligations.
The latest bleak prediction came from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland this month, as it said even with a massively scaled-up effort for technology deployment across all sectors, it is now likely too late to meet our targets.
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It said what was needed was “unprecedented technology change” combined with “strong policies and measures to limit growth in energy demand”.
Former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has stood over the coalition’s record, while also acknowledging making the required changes was not easy.
“Change is not easy and it is not necessarily popular, even when it's change for the better,” he said, following warnings in May from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“When you make a better public transport system, when you switch to your own renewable power supply, people object and have the right to do so, but it's going to require huge political effort.”
Professor Thorne credited the Government for its delivery of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2021 for setting a rigorous basis to take climate action in this country.
However, despite the actions being taken which are helping to reduce emissions, the rate at which they are falling is “nowhere near fast enough”. He also said there had been inadequate action on climate resilience and climate adaptation in recent years.
“It’s a mixed report card for this Government,” Professor Thorne said.
Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir, associate vice-president of sustainability at University College Cork, said the last Government deserves “top marks” for putting strong foundations in legislation and governance to underpin strong climate action in Ireland, but there are several key areas where it “could have done more but failed to do so”.
This included “sufficiently supporting and resourcing local authorities and the electricity grid operator to address the barriers to accelerated wind and solar energy development,” he said.
Professor Thorne said this Government had primarily “dealt in carrots, rather than sticks”.
“For future governments, the longer they hold off grasping the nettle, the more the climate system will progressively warm and the bigger burden they’re leaving to our future selves,” he said.
In terms of how important climate change should be in this race, Professor Ó Gallachóir said it should be given the examples both at home and abroad of the impacts of climate change.
“[Its own importance] is brought home to us more and more frequently through the increasing news footage of the devastation climate change globally, whether from flooding in Valencia, Spain, and elsewhere, forest fires in the US and Canada, snow storms across continental Europe,” he said.
“For many voters, housing, healthcare and inequality will likely be more in their minds. For voters affected by the impacts of climate change, like residents in Midleton who experienced devastating flooding, climate may have a higher priority.
"For young people, and increasingly people across generations, who are experiencing climate anxiety, it will likely have a higher priority.”
He added the next government needs to demonstrate leadership to the nation on climate change, while focusing on five key areas identified by his colleague Prof Hannah Daly as priorities it must show “courage” to take.
This includes cutting car dependency, electrifying transport, decarbonising industry, investing in wind, solar and the grid, and investing in retrofitting, heat pumps and district heating.
There is also a wider context to this, in that it is not just Ireland’s responsibility to take action on climate change.
Prior to the US presidential election, now-Green leader Roderic O’Gorman said another Trump presidency would be a “disaster for the US, Ireland, the planet”.
“Tragically, the flooding in Spain has reminded all of us just what climate change means for ordinary people,” he said.
Mr O’Gorman added Trump would encourage fossil fuel use at a time when it needed to be reduced, while the US would also retreat from global climate efforts.
Professor Thorne echoed these concerns. He described Donald Trump’s electoral win in the US as “utterly depressing” in terms of climate action, as he expected emissions may still fall in America “but nowhere near the rate they should”.
Trump, meanwhile, may be “more effective” at undermining global climate efforts to address climate change as he is coming into his second term with experience under his belt, according to Professor Ó Gallachóir.
He added: “As climate scientist Joeri Rogelj put it recently, 'Political decisions that disregard evidence… will be harshly course-corrected by the hard physical reality of climate change’.”
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