Ireland must act on CO2 emissions: We’ve scored an own goal on climate

Ireland as a nation suffered three significant setbacks in the past two days, at least one of them self-inflicted. Our soccer team succumbed to the Danes on Tuesday night, and yesterday we lost out to France to host the Rugby World Cup.

In those cases at least we put up a fight, but we have scored a major own goal on the environment, being ranked the worst performer in Europe for tacking climate change.

It is all a long way from December 2015 when Ireland, along with 196 other countries, signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, better known as the Paris Agreement. The then environment minister Alan Kelly signed the deal on behalf of Ireland in New York, saying it represented a “major milestone” in the collective response to the impacts of climate change.