The government must invest now if Ireland is to achieve its climate action targets and avoid crippling EU fines of anything between \u20ac8 billion and \u20ac26 billion, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.<\/p>\n
Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s climate spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change Advisory Council could not be clearer \u2013 our Climate Action Plan is a failure and is setting Ireland up for a major financial fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is now seven years since former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted Ireland was a climate laggard. At the time, we were ranked last in Europe when it came to climate action.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince then, we have declared a climate and biodiversity emergency, while signing up to legally binding climate action targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, this has not made a difference, with confirmation today that Ireland, per capita, has the highest emissions target gap of any EU member state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not just represent an abject failure of government policy and planning \u2013 it represents an existential crisis, with more extreme weather events set to wreak havoc with our lives and livelihoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s sobering report confirms that our Climate Action Plan is not being delivered at the scale or the speed required. In fact, even if every measure in the plan was implemented, it would add up to emissions cuts of just 29 per cent \u2013 significantly short of the 51 per cent reduction required in just five years\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe irony is that we have the money now to make a real difference. But instead of fast-tracking climate action by investing in things like green public transport, renewable energy, retrofitting, and more charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, the government seems resigned to failure and would prefer to save the money towards paying billions in punitive fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis approach is not just reckless and irresponsible \u2013 it amounts to climate denialism and defeatism.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 4, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government must invest now if Ireland is to achieve its climate action targets and avoid crippling EU fines of anything between \u20ac8 billion and \u20ac26 billion, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s climate spokesperson, said: \u201cThe report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the Climate Change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[405,268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n