Irish Examiner view: Climate plan needs everyone to be on the same page

IFA president Tim Cullinan speaks to members of the IFA National Council outside Government buildings in Dublin, after coming from the Convention Centre, where the Dáil debated the Climate Action Bill. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill passed in the Dáil on Wednesday, with 129 TDs voting in favour and 10 against.

Environment Minister Éamon Ryan said the bill would change everything for the better, and that it would be good for farmers.

Members of the Irish Farmers’ Association who marched from the Convention Centre to Government Buildings clearly didn’t think so, though.

They warned that the bill could have serious repercussions and called for recognition of the “carbon capture” farmers carry out by maintaining pastures, hedgerows and other environmental services.

Mr Ryan, however, insisted that the Government’s climate plan would “secure the future, provide well-paid jobs and protection from climate change”. 

He said a consensus among the public about the need for climate action would make this happen.

He is right in assuming that everyone, or the vast majority of people, see the need to address the most urgent issue of our generation.

The last decade was the hottest on record, according to the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

While lockdowns around the world led to a temporary dip in carbon emissions, the WMO said they had no discernible impact on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. 

Given those forecasts, few would argue with the commitment to cut carbon emissions to reach the Government’s 2050 objective of achieving “a climate-resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmentally-sustainable and climate-neutral economy”.

Heated differences of opinion

The real challenge, though, will be implementing a range of measures which will, ultimately, transform every section of the economy and touch the lives of each of its citizens. 

When that change is positive, it will be welcomed but, as the farmers’ protest has illustrated, there will be many heated differences of opinion in the months ahead.

We saw how that might play out last May in the discussion that followed a High Court decision to uphold plans for a proposed €140m cheese plant at Belview in Co Kilkenny. 

An Taisce had objected, highlighting the environmental impact, but Taoiseach Micheál Martin took the inappropriate step of pleading that no further appeals be lodged.

He outlined the “immense economic importance” of the plant to the region and said many, many jobs depended on it.

Finding the right balance

Finding the balance between creating the jobs so desperately needed after Covid-19 and rebuilding an economy that is environmentally friendly is one that will define the political landscape over the coming months and years.

There was a rush to restore all routes after the collapse of Stobart Air, and rightly so, but we must also have a conversation about the environmental impact of air travel.

In the Dáil on Wednesday, the importance of the Just Transition was highlighted. 

The mechanism, outlined in the Paris Agreement, underlines the need for governments to help create decent work and well-paid jobs for those affected by the transition to low-carbon economies. 

Any costs to jobs and communities must be acknowledged and shared. No one can be left behind now because the Government’s success in implementing the Climate Action Bill will affect generations.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB