This Government is good at making climate action plans but is poor when it comes to delivery
The Government’s failure to address significant implementation gaps in its Climate Action Plan will make it next to impossible for Ireland to achieve its carbon reduction targets, according to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore.
Deputy Whitmore was responding to the findings of the Climate Change Advisory Council’s annual review for 2023.
“This report should set off alarm bells for the Government. It comes on the back of two bleak assessments by the Environmental Protection Agency of our ability to reach legally binding climate action targets by 2030.
“The latest review by the Climate Change Advisory Council makes for sobering reading. It warns that Ireland will not meet its carbon budget targets for 2021 to 2025, or for 2026 to 2030, unless urgent action is taken.
“Yet again, it highlights implementation gaps in existing policy – gaps that continue to be ignored or put on the long finger by the Government. This includes a failure to set the sectoral emissions ceiling for the ‘Land Use, Land Use Change and Foresty’ sector. Delaying such decisions will just make it harder to reach our targets for every year that goes by.
“This Government is good at making plans but is poor when it comes to delivering them. We can already see from extreme weather events, in Ireland and abroad, that climate change is happening in real-time.
“Given the catastrophic consequences of doing nothing – or not enough – the lack of progress on climate action from the Government is unforgiveable.”
July 25, 2023