Alison O'Connor: The price we pay for ignoring climate change continues to spiral

As Oisín Coghlan of Friends of the Earth Ireland says, our stark choice is disruption now or destruction later on from climate change. The latter is more likely, Alison O'Connor feels

Second and third level students/pupils march on the streets during a Fridays For Future climate protest in Cork city earlier this year. Picture: Larry Cummins

What’s the point in reading any further? Why would you bother? From here until the final paragraph the subject matter under discussion is a complete turn-off for increasing numbers of people. In fact, if I never personally heard another word about it myself I’d be thrilled.

It feels, after all, that there is only so much human beings can tolerate, as we try to recover from a crippling pandemic and living through the horror of a war in Ukraine and the collateral damage that it is inflicting in terms of our ever-increasing cost of living.

We just don’t seem to have the headspace for climate change right now. We’ve gone from being punch drunk from the almost daily bad news to treating as white noise the never-ending succession of national and global reports that warn of how our planet is overheating. All the while the destruction continues apace.

We close our eyes and our ears to it. We choose not to take on board the enormous damage already done to nature and the suffering of people in poorer countries where there have been catastrophic weather events or devastating wildfires. It’s a deaf ear to the prospect of the dystopian future to be faced by our grandchildren.

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The latest report this week from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not bring good news. It states that for us to meet our 50% reduced emission target by 2030, set down by law, “all climate plans and policies, plus further measures” must be urgently implemented. This is a best-case scenario — hardly likely given our recent history.

Clearly, they are looking for swift action. But while the clock is ticking ever faster on planetary destruction our momentum simply slides in the opposite direction. We have a framework for the environmental action we need to take with the 2021 Climate Act. There is no end to the wind-bagging you’ll hear on that. 

Shortly, apparently, we are to expect the announcement by Government of limits on each of our economic sectors. Within seconds of any conversation on climate change starting, the subject of agriculture will be raised. It is true that the size of the national herd, rather than decreasing, is going in the opposite direction.

Without doubt, that sector is a huge climate change sinner. But, even if every farting cow in the country disappeared, the extent and immediacy of the impending disaster means every other sector and every individual needs to take serious and fast action.

While the rest of the economy is due to reduce emissions by 51% by 2030, for agriculture that is only 30% but even that reduced level looks nowhere near achievable at the current pace. 

We’ve got lofty ambitions on the tree planting — which would reduce the carbon in our atmosphere — 8,000 hectares a year. The pathetic reality right now is 2,000 hectares. If you’ve had problems getting a passport you should try getting a forestry licence. 

The pace of the Government’s plan for the retrofitting of homes to make them more energy-efficient can only be described as slow. 

We’ve a pathetic number of electric vehicles in our public bus fleet. We’re supposed to have one million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030 but we’ve more chance of everyone going around in flying cars than that happening.

We could win medals for the amount we talk on wind energy but ask anyone who wants to put up a few turbines and they’ll be quick to share their familiarity with the judicial review process.

Wind Energy Ireland will tell you, for instance, there is an 8,200-megawatt target for 2030 for onshore wind energy. However, over 1,200MW of that is in the planning process, and has been since 2020 or before. The planning system, as it points out, is the “bottleneck”.

Green party leader Eamon Ryan once spoke a little over-enthusiastically about planting seeds for salads and now, when he points out certain things such as how reducing our speed on the motorway would mean using less fuel, we choose to mock rather than listen.

The turf row escalated to a ludicrous level.

When the row blew up recently over turf — escalating to a ludicrous level — the Green Party chose to fight it on the number of lives that would be saved each year by the avoidance of burning smoky fuels in homes. That is clearly a very important factor, but it says so much that the compelling climate argument on turf burning was not brought to bear. 

Presumably, it was seen as far less effective.

It is fair to point out that the pandemic affected the business of Government on all fronts. Ironically, it was for the best when it came to carbon emissions because so many of us were staying at home. However, if you look at levels now they are worse than ever. 

As this year has gone on the drift in effective climate action feels even more pronounced. There is only so much the Greens can do as the smallest in a three-party coalition.

We saw the way Tánaiste Leo Varadkar took the rug out from Eamon Ryan on turf. We also see how his party baulk at putting pressure on their traditional support base, the farming community. Taoiseach Micheal Martin says all the right things, but the words don’t turn into action. 

It’s pleasant to follow Cork South West TD Christopher O’Sullivan, a volunteer whale watching guide, on social media with his emphasis on the importance of caring about biodiversity.

There are some lovely photos, such as his mother’s lawn after she let it grow for #NoMowMay or a blue-headed wagtail spotted on Mizen Head or Risso’s dolphins off the West Cork coast. But at a wider level in his party there is no great sense either of an appetite to do what needs doing on decarbonising. 

Both parties spend their time looking over their shoulders at Sinn Féin with its blatantly populist approach to carbon taxes. Following the release of the EPA report this week, the Government side was all about the buzz phrases of “rolling out” and “ramping up” but you wouldn’t be optimistic.

They pointed out — as a defence — that the EPA modelling did not factor in everything they have planned or measures they intend to introduce. Therefore the technical detail, which would make the EPA figures more favourable, are not available. This defence can only be described as tragically hollow with elements of Fr Ted logic.

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Commenting on the EPA report, director of Friends of the Earth Ireland, Oisín Coghlan, said there was a time when we might have been looking at a bit of disruption when it came to combatting global warming. But such has been our inaction that time has long passed now. 

Our stark choice, as he points out, is disruption now or destruction later on from climate change. As the saying goes, we’ve a lot going on right now but the price of ignoring climate change gets higher with each month that passes. We have to pay attention.