Taoiseach: Climate change is the most serious challenge of our lifetime

Taoiseach Micheál Martin arrives for the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow. 

Climate change is “without doubt” the most serious challenge in our lifetime, an existential crisis if it is not tackled with action instead of rhetoric.

Those were the words of Taoiseach Micheál Martin as the United Nations Cop26 climate change event in Glasgow began, with world leaders descending on the Scottish city on Monday.

Mr Martin told the Irish Examiner that as big as the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit crises were, climate change is even more pressing.

The Taoiseach was involved in roundtable discussions with his fellow government leaders in Glasgow, before addressing the world on Tuesday.

“It is once in a hundred years that you face a pandemic, but I’m convinced that climate change is an existential crisis," said Mr Martin. 

I worry for our younger generations, for children yet to be born, what kind of planet they will be born into if there are very severe weather events, such as droughts and floods.

“Climate change is the most serious challenge in our lifetime, without question. This affects the whole food production chain, and I link it with biodiversity. The plus side of it is, if we meet it head-on, we can create a better life for people, safer and healthier.

“For example, if we took out all the fossil fuels from our cities, we’d have a remarkable urban environment in terms of health. I think this can happen rapidly, there is nothing worse than going down Patrick St in Cork and seeing a bus belch out diesel fumes. EV buses can be transformative,” he said.

Greta Thunberg alongside fellow climate activists during a demonstration at Festival Park, Glasgow, on the first day of the Cop26 summit. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Cop26 must be a seminal event in the fight against climate change, said Mr Martin.

Ireland will more than double its commitment to vulnerable countries to combat climate change, he said.

Some $100bn a year from 2020 was committed at Cop15 in 2009 to support developing countries to cut their carbon emissions and adapt their economies to deal with climate change.

However, that target has fallen well short in the intervening years.

“Climate finance is a significant area and we’ll be signalling on Tuesday that we’ll be upping our commitments in respect of that," said Mr Martin.

The Government has committed to a doubling of our global finance commitments by 2025, and we aim to go above that. 

"Our commitment is stronger as well because it’s very focused on adaptation, so those countries can benefit from climate finance.

“It is not just rhetoric from us, it is a pledge that is provided for in subsequent budgets. They are trying to get to $100bn and every country has to make its own contribution per capita. We’re about $20bn off that. The US has upped its pledge at the UN Security Council and we are going to increase ours, to more than double our commitment over the next number of years.

“On climate finance, we were around €93m in 2019. We’ll be over €200m by 2025, for countries in need,” he said.

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan is expected to take part in the second week of Cop26, which runs until Friday, November 12.

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