Chair of Climate Change Advisory Council ‘won’t pull punches’ on criticising Government on carbon emissions

The chair of the new Climate Change Advisory Council has said the group won’t hold back on criticising the Government for failings in tackling carbon emissions.

Professor John Fitzgerald warned the task of combatting climate change would involve “significant policy developments at both a national and an international level”.He said where those policy developments did not materialise, the council would be swift in pointing it out.

“That’s our job, to call it as we see it, and with the nature of the personalities on the council, we’re not going to be pulling our punches,” he said.

“But we’re not going out to disagree. “We’re going out to influence policy and hopefully the bulk of what we say will find favour.”

The 11-member council was set up on an interim basis six months ago but the order legally establishing it was signed by the environment minister earlier this week, meaning it can now begin its work in earnest.

It is tasked with advising, assessing, and monitoring Government policy and its impact on the behaviour of industry, agriculture, and the energy and transport sectors in terms of the country’s international obligations to become carbon neutral by 2050.

It will hold its first meeting as a statutory body next month to agree a plan of work for the year ahead and will produce its first annual report in the first half of 2017.

Professor Fitzgerald said there were similarities between the group and the Fiscal Advisory Council. “Government takes on board some of the things its says and others it doesn’t. Inevitably there will be things which we will recommend which may not find favour.”

The other council members are: Laura Burke, director general, Environmental Protection Agency; Prof Alan Barrett, director designate, ESRI; William Walsh, acting CEO, Sustainable Energy Authority; Prof Gerry Boyle, director, Teagasc; Prof Ottmar Edenhofer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Prof Frank Convery, chief economist, Environmental Defence Fund; Prof Peter Clinch, UCD; Prof Anna Davies, TCD; Prof Alan Matthews, TCD; and Joseph Curtin, Institute of International and European Affairs.