Daniel McConnell: Our politicians are failing us all on climate change

Why is Eamon Ryan, in demanding a 30% reduction in agriculture emissions, being painted as the lunatic and others as the moderate sensible ones?

A firefighter tries to extinguish the flames next to motorcycles during a wildfire near Megara town, west of Athens, Greece, earlier this week. Picture: AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris

It has become too easy to dismiss Eamon Ryan.

Yes, the Green Party leader is prone to bouts of eccentricity and can at times be aloof and baffling in his utterances.

We all chuckled at him dozing off in the Dáil in the early days of Government and scratched our heads when he suggested everyone grow their own food in window boxes and that hardware store stay open during the first lockdown in 2020.

From the early days of this Coalition, in light of the chaos within the Green Party over whether they would go into government and the bizarre leadership contest, Ryan was dismissed as the awkward mudguard of the Government who had to be tolerated rather than listened to.

But what has been fascinating over the past year or so, since the passage of the Climate Action bill, is the change in tone from rural independents and rural government backbenchers when it comes to Ryan.

No longer is he dismissed.

Now he is painted as the dangerous bete noir of rural Ireland, capable of leading the two larger parties into “hairbrained” attacks on traditional customs such as turf selling.

But have we not got it all wrong here?

At a time when the continent of Europe is literally on fire due to extreme heat and the Environmental Protection Agency reports our emissions rose by 5% last year, a serious question needs to be asked.

Eamon Ryan is demanding a 30% reduction in agriculture emissions. Picture: PA 

Why is Ryan, in demanding a 30% reduction in agriculture emissions, being painted as the lunatic and others as the moderate sensible ones?

As Ryan’s Green Party colleague Pauline O’Reilly asked this week: “Dear FF, FG and SF, here’s a reality check. 40C in the UK, tens of thousands evacuated across Europe due to fires, AND farms and homes to be flooded in Ireland. Stick to the Climate Plan and be honest — every sector needs to play its part.”

The current battle between Ryan and the Green Party on one side and Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue (as proxy for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the farming lobby) on the other who are demanding a reduction of 22% and no more is a make or break moment for this government and will prove definitively if it can actually be taken seriously when it comes to climate change.

Ryan has been ploughing a lonely furrow when it comes to the need for the maximum level of emissions reduction and our laggard pace as reflected in the EPA report only means a greater reduction is now demanded of us. But in the face of this reality has been a highly sophisticated campaign to lobby ministers and TDs on the government benches to resist anything beyond 22%.

A look through the Irish Farming Association’s media feed will show the extent of the lobbying being done by local branches all over the country with one-on-one meetings with TDs in their offices and homes commonplace.

For example, we see pictures of Justice Minister Helen McEntee meeting with an IFA delegation around a table, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue meeting his local delegation, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris meeting with IFA chiefs, similarly with junior ministers Malcolm Noonan and Hildegarde Naughton, former ministers Brendan Smith and Michael Ring, senators Robbie Gallagher, Tim Lombard, Eugene Murphy, and Martin Conway.

These are just the ones that were happy to be photographed.

Other politicians from across the political spectrum have also confirmed to me that they have been lobbied to ensure the emissions reduction is as low as possible.

Powerful lobby

As we all know, the farming lobby in this country is extremely powerful, active, and advanced.

The lobbying register shows that since this government was formed in June 2020, a total of 649 records of lobbying by the IFA.

This compares say to Newsbrands Ireland, the lobby group for the newspaper industry, which showed 15 instances of lobbying during the same period.

The IFA’s operation is multi-faceted. It is letters, meetings, zoom chats, social gatherings, and on and on and on.

Many rural TDs see themselves as defenders of the farming sector, allies of the IFA.

Their agendas align and they are comfortable in that space, because they feel it gets them elected.

Some of the TDs being lobbied are farmers themselves and feel passionately about protecting their sector.

They say that to get acceptance among farmers for a 22% reduction was tough and there is no room for negotiation from their point. It is 22% and no more, they warn.

Emergency services fight fires in a row of houses in Wennington, England, this week. A series of grass fires broke out around the British capital amid an intense heatwave. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

But they also say that they have been forced into adopting a harder line in light of what is the rabid and incessant attacks from a small but noisy group of rural independent TDs who bemoan the demise of rural Ireland on a daily basis in the Dáil.

In the face of mounting scientific evidence that the world is reaching a critical tipping point in terms of climate, they cynically reduce the argument down time and time again to “those bastards in Dublin doing us simple folk down”.

Such attacks have raised the tensions within the coalition parties.

Look at Brendan Griffin, the deputy Government whip, launching a stinging rebuke of Ryan and his “hairbrained” comments on reducing the national herd and also suggestions from within government that people will be forced to give up their second car if agricultural emissions reductions fall short.

Look at how quick Micheál Martin — while on a trip to Japan and Singapore — was to come to the defence of car usage rather than saying more needs to be done as rows of houses in London were burning.

Farmers and the wider agricultural sector should not be demonised and it is fair to say they have been battered with ever-changing targets and demands from successive governments.

Burying heads in sand

There are plenty in the industry who accept the reality of what is needed to meet their climate obligations. But there are plenty of others who quite frankly continue to bury their head in the sand and refuse to accept the need for change.

They pollute our rivers with impunity with effluent and slurry from their farms and refuse to accept any responsibility for what they do.

They will prefer to demonise Ryan and his cohort of Greens and see them as attacking their way of life.

It is long overdue that we took this issue seriously.

Not for the first time, the Irish political class finds itself lagging behind where the public mood is on this. The temptation is always to play to people’s prejudices as opposed to seeking to find a consensus make progress.

Those opposing emission cuts beyond 22% say these are not multi-national corporations who will be affected but small family farmers who will be destroyed by such demands.

If this government actually wants to be taken seriously on climate change, then it needs to get serious about climate change as opposed to simply talking about it.

There are increasing suggestions that the Cabinet will kick this issue to the autumn as opposed to rushing to find an agreement before the final meeting of ministers before the summer break on Wednesday.

With farmers refusing to budge from their 22% perch and Ryan insisting more needs to be done, the risk to government cohesion is real.

An anxious few days lie ahead.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB