Taoiseach must bring home 'horrifying' message of climate reality, says expert 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told political leaders at Cop 27 that Ireland is feeling the devastating effects of climate change, commenting on 'new growth' appearing on trees during a mild October. Picture: Kenneth O Halloran

Ireland remains "horrifyingly" with its foot on the accelerator towards climate damage, with greenhouse gas emissions continuing upwards — Cop27 must now be a line in the sand.

That is according to one of the country's foremost experts on climate change, who said Taoiseach Micheál Martin must bring home from Egypt the real-life horror stories of those whose existence is already being devastated by climate change.

University College Cork (UCC) professor Hannah Daly said Mr Martin must "address the nation directly on the urgency of action" in relation to climate change "with the same urgency that our political leadership demonstrated during the pandemic".

Otherwise, we will yet again miss our targets and continue to be part of the problem, not the solution.

The Taoiseach addressed the Cop27 UN summit in Egypt yesterday, saying that Ireland has seen the effects of climate change in recent weeks.

"Temperatures in Ireland have been so mild this autumn that trees are producing new growth before they have even dropped their leaves,” he said.

Echoing his calls that the most vulnerable countries should be supported as a matter of priority by the larger economies, Mr Martin said “the burden of climate change globally is falling most heavily on those least responsible for our predicament”.

Our citizens will become increasingly cynical, weary, and hopeless if words are not urgently matched by deeds — if commitments do not generate new realities. We can already see and feel the world around us changing.

Prof Daly said that while the Taoiseach spoke passionately, "words and ambitious targets are cheap, but action is hard".

"Not technically or financially hard — most of the solutions we need to rapidly reduce emissions are already mature, and bring economic opportunities and cost savings. 

The real cost of climate action is the political capital our political leaders must spend to drive the rapid and transformative action necessary to actually meet our commitments. 

"It is not politically easy to ask people to make a change to their lives, to require high-emitting industries to make investments, and to clearly communicate the moral imperative — the great tragedy and injustice of climate breakdown is that it is caused by ordinary decent people just going about their lives," she said.

Referencing UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres' bleak comments yesterday that the world is on a "highway to hell" because of climate change, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that through action, the path was there still to "earn our clean ticket to heaven".