Anja Murray: Top nature questions to raise with election hopefuls

Decisions made now will have huge impact on people, land and nature, far into the future

The Dáil recognised a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019, but biodiversity is a low priority on the political agenda. The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss convened in 2022 and issued more than 150 recommendations that have the potential to dramatically transform Ireland’s relationship with the natural environment. 

With a national election coming soon, neighbourhoods are already being visited by hopeful TDs and their teams of canvassers, keen to hear about voters’ most pressing issues. Top of many people’s lists will be the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, housing and healthcare. Climate change ranks highly too, for which removing fossil fuel subsidies will go a long way toward addressing. But another theme that people care deeply about, yet often fail to raise on the doorsteps, is Biodiversity loss.

The Dáil recognised a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019, but biodiversity is a low priority on the political agenda. The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss convened in 2022 and issued more than 150 recommendations that have the potential to dramatically transform Ireland’s relationship with the natural environment. While there has been progress to address some of the pertinent issues, the scale of action has been entirely insufficient to match the scale of the challenge.