Irish Examiner view: We all must accept responsibility in the battle to combat climate change

One person in eight said Ireland was “too small to make a difference on climate change and should let others take the lead”, but an overwhelming majority said that Ireland has a responsibility to do what it can. File Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA

There has been a consensus for some time now that the most pressing threat facing the world is climate change and the problems it causes. Environmental problems, forced migration, sweeping behavioural changes — all of these challenges have climate change as a basic animating principle.

This makes the research released this week by the Environmental Protection Agency all the more alarming. That research suggests almost 40% of Irish people believe climate change is jointly caused by people and natural occurrences.

That belief was described by EPA director Eimear Cotter as “wrong”, pure and simple, given the scientific consensus that climate change is man-made.

There was further cause for concern in the softening of support for policies which are specifically aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change.

For instance, the overall proportion of those surveyed who supported bans on peat, coal, and oil for home heating has decreased by nine percentage points since 2021, down to 59%; overall support for higher taxes on cars that use petrol or diesel has decreased by 13 percentage points, down to 51%.

The good news? The EPA believes this softening of support is not the result of ideology or belief and, in an era of malign disinformation campaigns seeking to mislead entire national populations, that can be taken as a positive.

The natural retort is that ignorance cannot be used as an excuse when the effects of climate change are so widely discussed. An EPA spokesperson articulated the disconnect here between belief and action, however, saying it is entirely possible to have a complete understanding and acceptance of climate change as a threat — but still find it difficult to accept a policy that affects one’s daily life, is a neat summary.

It is a longstanding challenge to get individuals to link their personal activity to a wider global challenge, and at least there was a chink of light in the EPA research on this issue. 

One person in eight said Ireland was “too small to make a difference on climate change and should let others take the lead”, but an overwhelming majority said that Ireland has a responsibility to do what it can.

Replicating this attitude at a personal level is non-negotiable. For all of us.

Truth before reconciliation 

In the High Court in Belfast yesterday, Mr Justice Adrian Colton was unequivocal.

Justice Colton said that provisions for conditional immunity from prosecution for offences committed during the Troubles, which are in the British government’s Legacy Act, are not compatible with human rights legislation.

He was ruling in a case brought by relatives of victims and the survivor of a shooting.

The relevant provisions in the act include a conditional amnesty for suspects, along with a ban on inquests and future civil actions related to the period of the Troubles.

The legislation has been controversial from the start, attracting criticism from political parties within Northern Ireland, as well as a letter to British prime minister Rishi Sunak from members of the US Congress, which expressed concern at the act’s provisions. The Irish Government launched an interstate legal case against the act, arguing that it breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

It is not hard to understand why emotions still run so deep when it comes to culpability and the Troubles. The day before that High Court ruling in Belfast, an inquest into the death of Sean Brown in 1997 heard some astonishing allegations — that 25 individuals were linked through intelligence to his murder, a number of them being described as “agents of the state”.

There was a good deal of optimism arising out of the return to operation of the Stormont Assembly, but matters such as the Brown case show there is still a distance to travel when it comes to dealing with the long shadow cast by the Troubles.

In that context, it was interesting to read the ruling of the High Court judge yesterday: “There is no evidence that the granting of immunity under the act will in any way contribute to reconciliation in Northern Ireland, indeed the evidence is to the contrary.”

Reconciliation is often combined with the word “truth” when considering such matters, significantly enough — there can be no real reconciliation without the truth.

On that score, yesterday’s judgment is welcome.

Just a stand in?

A testing few days for the Football Association of Ireland brightened up considerably with the announcement of John O’Shea as interim head coach of the men’s senior team.

FAI officials had a disastrous outing at the Public Accounts Committee last week, while the ongoing search for a successor to Stephen Kenny has taken some unfortunate twists and turns, with leading candidates dropping in and out of contention.

O’Shea’s appointment yesterday will be welcomed, then, as a positive step. The Waterford native worked with Kenny as an assistant coach, but surely derives his authority from a dazzling playing career. He won 118 caps for the Republic of Ireland, along with a fistful of Premier League titles with Manchester United, and FAI officials will surely hope he brings the same calm authority to his new post that he did to his defensive duties on the field of play.

Those same officials have indicated that a full-time managerial appointment will be made in early April. Based on the experience of the women’s team, where Eileen Gleeson graduated from interim to full-time boss, will O’Shea make his temporary appointment a permanent one?

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