Mick Clifford: Weathering a lot of hot air on climate

Mick Clifford believes the political reaction to this week's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and calls to delay the rise in carbon tax show that leadership on the world's climate crisis is sorely lacking

Second- and third-level students march during a Fridays For Future Climate Protest in Cork City last month. Photo: Larry Cummins

In January 2019, then-taoiseach Leo Varadkar made a personal admission that was met with no little outrage. 

He said he was trying to reduce the amount of meat he ate in order to cut down on his carbon footprint.  This was, in a relatively minor way, offering some leadership. The science says we need to cut down on meat consumption in order to tackle emissions.