Fake conversion - Still avoiding climate reality

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Government had, after we were told that one million species are in danger of extinction, a sort of Pauline conversion.

Ireland became the second country to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency. However, the credibility of that conversion hardly bears scrutiny.

This Government persists with unsustainable plans for farming and it has allowed, in 2019, the National Transport Authority to continue with plans to buy more than 200 diesel buses.

It does not require anything more than the slightest inclination towards modest scepticism to think the declaration of an emergency was provoked by growing protest and, just maybe, a looming election.

However, there are many issues that show that we are as reluctant to modify our behaviour as Government is to impose change.

The decision by An Bord Pleanála to support new parking spaces at Muckross House in Killarney despite conservation concerns is just one of many that shows we have yet to grasp the scale of the challenge we face.

This decision suggests that we still think that it’s business — literally — as usual.