Government has lost its spark in endeavour to tackle climate change

As someone who is trying to keep the purse strings tight, has Jack Chambers considered the fines Ireland will face if we miss those targets?

Earlier this month, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers warned there cannot be 'uncertainty or paralysis' when it comes to infrastructure development because of a 'subjective interpretation which will come from the courts on Section 15 of the Climate Act'. Photo: David Young/PA

When the Climate Action Plan was published in 2021, the cover contained beautiful drawings that looked hand drawn.

It showed a little red car, still plugged into its charger, heading towards an apartment block with solar panels. A stick figure on a bike cycled along a fish-filled lake. Green hills with trees and wind turbines were in the background.

It was the first Climate Action Plan produced by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Green coalition Government. At 211 pages, it was longer than the 150-page document published by the Fine Gael-led Government in 2019.

However, it was shorter than the 284-page booklet published in 2023, and the whopper 416-page version in 2024. While they may not have contained a hand-drawn picture, they were substantial documents.

Not only have the cutesy drawings disappeared, so has the Green Party and any hope that this Government will make climate change a priority.

While researching the Irish Examiner’s story on the widening gap between the Government’s retrofitting targets and delivery, I looked back at promises on the matter across all climate action plans published since 2019.

All versions vowed to install 400,000 heat pumps in existing dwellings and to retrofit 500,000 homes to a BER B2 standard or above. Except for the Climate Action Plan 2025. The first plan published without the Greens. There is still no 2026 plan.

The 2024 iteration contains colourful boxes of text, bar charts and pie charts. The 2025 plan, just 166-pages long, features big, dirty grey boxes of text and very little colour. It looks like something you would be given to read as punishment.

Dissecting the layout of the document may seem frivolous, but it underlines the spark that has been missing from this Government’s bid to tackle the greatest existential crisis of our time.

That is also before you even get into the massive policy shifts, and that few of the promises in these glossy documents are being met.

Earlier this month, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers warned there cannot be “uncertainty or paralysis” when it comes to infrastructure development because of a “subjective interpretation which will come from the courts on Section 15 of the Climate Act”.

“If we see any wider issue towards paralysis when it comes to delivery of infrastructure projects or housing connected to section 15 of the Climate Act, we should keep it under review, and we should reconsider it.

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“That's good Government; Where legislation has unintended consequences […] Government should intervene and adjust legislation so that we get our programme delivered.”

He did not mention his party was in Government when the legislation was amended in 2021, vowing to reduce emissions by 51% by 2030.

As someone who is trying to keep the purse strings tight, has Mr Chambers considered the fines Ireland will face if we miss those targets? Has he considered the additional costs Ireland will face if climate migrants seek refuge here?

Is this Government so stuck in the rut of thinking in electoral cycles that it does not care what happens beyond its term?

While there is no doubt we have made strides, people are still being left behind in what is supposed to be a “just transition”.

Many grants can only be accessed by people who have money to pay for retrofits upfront. Grants for electric vehicles only apply to new cars, which many cannot afford.

And yet, everyone is expected to play their part. But when will this Government start playing its part?

We do not have to go back to the days of colourful drawings. But we need to go back to the days of at least pretending to care about climate change.

This coalition is doing little to show it cares. And it is we who will be left paying the price for their inaction and inattentiveness.

• Louise Burne, political correspondent

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB