Majority of TDs sign have now signed Climate Pledge

Government to report action plans to EU tomorrow before public consultation

A majority of TDs have now signed a pledge to make sure Ireland does it fair share to prevent dangerous climate change. The Climate Pledge was launched by Friends of the Earth as a first step to build public and political consensus about the urgency and importance of tackling the climate crisis. 89 TDs from all parties have signed the Pledge since the beginning of this Dáil session, including one Minister of State and 17 government backbenchers. The signatories also include Enda Kenny, Pat Rabitte and Trevor Saregeant. Friends of the Earth supporters around the country have sent thousands of emails and postcards to their local TDs as part of the campaign.

Friends of the Earth's director, Oisin Coghlan, welcomed the news:
"It's good to see such cross-party support for action on climate change. It's time now to start putting the pledge into practice. The forthcoming National Development Plan, the Energy Green Paper and party manifestos for the General Election must put the country on the path to a low-carbon future. Ireland is currently the fifth most climate-polluting country in the world per person. To do our fair share to prevent global climate chaos we have to start now to cut our emissions by at least two-thirds by 2050 in a planned way that improves quality of life for everyone."

Meanwhile, the government will tomorrow send the EU its second National Allocation Plan for big companies participating in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which covers a third of Ireland's emissions. It now emerges, however, that the submission will also outline the measures to be taken to curb the other two-thirds of our climate pollution, from transport, homes, shops, offices and farming. The government had previosuly promised a public consultation on revising the National Climate Change Strategy to tackle these areas.

"Either the submission will only detail current measures to cut emissions, which we all know are proving wholly inadequate, or else the government will be announcing new and radical plans to the European Commission without any consultation or discussion here at home. Either the government doesn't trust the public to support adequate action or it doesn't plan to take adequate action. The fight against climate change needs both political leadership and a national conversation", Mr Coghlan added.

The 89 signatories of the Friends of the Earth Climate Pledge are as follows:

Fianna Fail (15)
Barry Andrews, Liam Aylward, Ivor Callely, Pat Carey, Jimmy Devins, Frank Fahey, Seán Fleming, Jim Glennon, Seán Haughey, Máire Hoctor, Billy Kelleher, John McGuinness, John Moloney, Denis O'Donovan, Michael Woods.

Progressive Democrats (3)
Noel Grealish, Liz O'Donnell, Fiona O'Malley.

Fine Gael (26)
Bernard Allen, Pat Breen, Paul Connaughton, Simon Coveney, Seymour Crawford, Jimmy Deenihan, Damien English, Olwyn Enright, Tom Hayes, Phil Hogan, Paul Kehoe, Enda Kenny, Pádraic McCormack, Shane McEntee, Dinny McGinley, Olivia Mitchell, Gay Mitchell, Gerard Murphy, Denis Naughten, Dan Neville, Michael Noonan, Fergus O'Dowd, John Perry, Michael Ring, David Stanton, Billy Timmins.

Labour Party (21)
Tommy Broughan, Joan Burton, Joe Costello, Eamon Gilmore, Michael D. Higgins, Brendan Howlin, Kathleen Lynch, Liz McManus, Breeda Moynihan-Cronin, Brian O'Shea, Jan O'Sullivan, Seamus Pattison, Willie Penrose, Ruairi Quinn, Pat Rabbitte, Sean Ryan, Joe Sherlock, Róisín Shortall, Emmet Stagg, Mary Upton, Jack Wall.

Green Party (6)
Dan Boyle, Ciarán Cuffe, Paul Gogarty, John Gormley, Eamon Ryan, Trevor Sargent.

Sinn Fein (5)
Sean Crowe, Martin Ferris, Arthur Morgan, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

Socialist Party (1): Joe Higgins

Independents (12):
Niall Blaney, James Breen, Paudge Connolly, Jerry Cowley, Beverly Flynn, Mildred Fox, Tony Gregory, Marian Harkin, Seamus Healy, Finian McGrath, Paddy McHugh, Catherine Murphy.

ENDS

Notes

1. The text of the Climate Pledge that TDs have signed can be read here.
2. The five most climate-polluting countries in the world per capita are the US, Canada, Australia, Luxembourg and Ireland.
3. The EU estimates that industrialized countries will have to cut their emissions by 60-80% of 1990 levels by 2050. Ireland's emissions are currently 23% above 1990 levels while our Kyoto target is to cut them to 13% above by 2010. Future EU cuts will be shared out among member states taking into account their level of development and their historical contribution to the problem. Given that and our current emission levels Ireland will have to cut its emissions by at least two thirds by 2050.
4. In preparing the second National Allocation Plan the government has consulted widely for over six months with the big companies invovlved in emissions trading which covers one third of Irish climate pollution. It has stalled however on plans to revise the National Climate Change Strategy which includes the other two thirds of our emissions, both domestic and commercial. The strategy has been under review for four of the six years since it was launched and few of the big policy measures have been implemented, most notably the carbon tax which was abandoned by Charlie McCreevy in 2004 but never replaced with anything else.