Groups urge action on climate change

SOME of the country’s leading aid agencies, environmental and community groups have made a combined call on all parties in the upcoming election to place the issue of climate change at the top of thepolitical agenda.

Representatives of more than 20 groups said yesterday that such a measure was necessary from the next Government in order for Ireland to play its role in tackling the single biggest problem faced by people across the globe.

Among the organisations groups participating in the Stop Climate Chaos campaign are Trócaire, Concern, Friends of the Earth, the National Youth Council of Ireland, An Taisce and Christian Aid.

Launching the initiative, Concern’s chief executive Tom Arnold said there was no excuse for anyone or any country not to be prepared for the consequences of allowing climate change to continue uninterrupted.

“It exposes the stark inequality of this world where those closest to the land and who contribute least to the problem are the ones hardest hit,” said Mr Arnold.

Several speakers referred to the Stern report which warned that delays to tackling the problem of global warming will also threaten the world economy.

Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire, said the problem of climate change was also an issue of global justice. The devastating effect of a warming planet meant a quarter of the land area of Bangladesh — a country one-and-a-half times the size of Ireland — could disappear due to flooding over the next few years, he said.

The groups’ website is: www.stopclimatechaos.ie