Election 2024: Politicians and voters ‘don’t take climate threat seriously enough’

In the wake of the recent disastrous Spanish floods, Friends of the Earth Ireland CEO Oisín Coghlan said: 'I doubt climate change came up that much on the doors in the Spanish general election last year. But it’s on the doorsteps in Valencia and Malaga now.' Picture: Alberto Saiz/AP  

Political leaders and voters are not taking the threat of climate change seriously in the general election campaign despite its devastating effects becoming more apparent in Ireland, environmental campaigners warn.

International researchers this week issued fresh warnings that, on the current trajectory, global heating will smash the 1.5C scientists say is the limit to stave off the worst of climate change.

According to the Climate Action Tracker — an independent scientific project — “minimal progress” has been made in curbing expected global temperature rises since Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021.

The world is on track to hit 2.7C of global heating, which would have profound effects of human life and biodiversity, rendering some areas of the planet unliveable, the scientists said.

Friends of the Earth said all political parties in Ireland must spell out how they are going to uphold Ireland’s climate law, which was passed three years ago in the Dáil by 129 votes to 10.

RESULTS: GENERAL ELECTION 2024

Scroll for results in your area

Cork East

Cork North Central

Cork North West

Cork South Central

Cork South West

Kerry

Clare

Limerick City

Limerick County

Tipperary North

Tipperary South

Waterford

Dublin Bay North

Dublin Bay South

Dublin Central

Dublin Fingal East

Dublin Fingal West

Dublin Mid West

Dublin North West

Dublin Rathdown

Dublin South Central

Dublin South West

Dublin West

Dun Laoghaire

Carlow/Kilkenny

Kildare North

Kildare South

Laois

Longford/Westmeath

Louth

Meath East

Meath West

Offaly

Wexford

Wicklow

Wicklow/Wexford

Cavan/Monaghan

Donegal

Galway East

Galway West

Mayo

Roscommon/Galway

Sligo/Leitrim

Despite the overwhelming parliamentary majority, Ireland’s emissions are not nearly going down quickly enough to match the legally binding targets that the legislation sets out, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the independent Climate Change Advisory Council, and leading climate scientists here.

Research has shown that storms such as Storm Babet, which devastated Midleton in East Cork last year, were exacerbated by climate change, with such events set to become more frequent and intense in the future.

Friends of the Earth Ireland CEO Oisín Coghlan said climate change must be taken more seriously by politicians and voters. He said: 

There’s been some reports that climate hasn’t been coming up on the doorsteps as much as it did four years ago.

“I doubt climate change came up that much on the doors in the Spanish general election last year. But it’s on the doorsteps in Valencia and Malaga now. 

"The next Government will be responsible for doing what it can to prevent and protect us from climate breakdown.”

Just weeks after torrential flooding decimated Valencia, leaving more than 200 dead, Malaga in the south of Spain has this week seen thousands evacuated from their homes in the face of red alert storm warnings.

The Green Party this week wrote to RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst, calling for the broadcaster to host a TV debate on climate change ahead of the general election.

Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin will not attend this year’s annual UN climate change summit, Cop29, in Baku, as did leaders such as US president Joe Biden, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The world saw a 0.8% rise in emissions last year, while 2024 is all but certain to breach the 1.5C barrier for the first time.

If those patterns continue, the 1.5C will be locked in by the end of the decade, climate scientists have warned.

Maynooth professor of climate change, Peter Thorne, said hard choices had to be made at home. He said: 

We’re still not fundamentally understanding that action now might be painful, but we need to do it.

“For future governments, the longer they hold off grasping the nettle, the more the climate system will progressively warm and the bigger burden they’re leaving to our future selves.”

He said the election of Donald Trump as US president was “utterly depressing”, as he had given short shrift to climate change action and pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement, which set out the 1.5C limit, when he was elected in 2015. 

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB