Parties to be grilled on global boiling at Climate Hustings

The seven political parties that passed the 2021 climate law by 129 votes to 10 and adopted binding emissions limits to 2030 on a cross-party basis in the last Dáil will be represented at a Climate and Environment Hustings this morning in the Royal Irish Academy. Hosted by Friends of the Earth, the DCU Centre for Climate and Society and the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition the hustings will be chaired by Pat Leahy, the political editor of The Irish Times. The event is booked out but will live-streamed on YouTube at 9.30am.

The parties will be represented by the following election candidates:

Party	Representative
Fine Gael	Hildegarde Naughton
Fianna Fail	Thomas Byrne
Sinn Fein	Darren O’Rourke
Green Party	Pippa Hackett
Labour	Ivana Bacik
Social Democrats	Jennifer Whitmore
People Before Profit	Paul Murphy

 

Commenting, Friends of the Earth chief Executive, Oisín Coghlan said:

“As UN Secretary General António Guterres has said ‘The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived … Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy. No more excuses. No more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.’

“The fundamental question for all parties is what new and additional policies are you proposing to accelerate the reduction of Ireland’s polluting emissions. The EPA is currently projecting that emissions will only fall by 29% by 2030 when the target in the climate law is 51%.

“I think voters struggling with the cost of living also deserve to know how the climate policies parties are proposing will improve their lives now as well as safeguard the future.

“We know we have climate solutions that can also improve quality of life for everyone, not just the wealthy, and reduce poverty and inequality. But too often that’s not how it sounds or feels to the public.”

For Friends of the Earth the top 10 questions are:

1. What will they do for renters, who are currently locked out of retrofitting that would give them warmer homes with healthier air and lower bills?
2. How much social housing will they pledge to retrofit by 2030? The outgoing Government was planning to do 25%. Environmental and social NGOs want the target to be 100%.
3. Where to the parties stand on the power grab being carried out by data centres, which are on track to use almost a third of our electricity by 2030. Would you support a moratorium on more data centres coming online until any threat to the sustainability of our energy system from data centre expansion has passed?
4. Would they support an additional tax on data centre profits to speed up the delivery of renewables for households and public services?
5. On transport, are they committed to keeping and achieving the current Government’s commitment to investing twice as much in public transport as new roads?
6. What are they planning to do to achieve the target in the Climate Action Plan to reduce our dependence on cars, from 3 in every 4 journeys now to 1 in every 2 by 2030?
7. Are they committed to a developing a Nature Restoration Plan and a land use plan in line with our EU nature and climate law obligations? And that is adequately funded to reward farmers for the things we need from our land: food, water, carbon storage, nature, and recreation?
8. Will they reform the legal purpose and governance of Irish state agencies, from Coillte and Bord na Mona to Teagasc and Bord Bia to align with our climate and nature goals?
9. Internationally, will they deliver on the outgoing Government’s commitment to contributing at least €225m a year in international climate finance and set a pathway to increase this to Ireland’s actual 'fair share' (according to aid agencies like Trócaire) of €500m a year.
10. Will they make Ireland the first EU country to endorse the idea of a new Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty?

Oisín Coghlan concluded:

“Irish emissions have started to fall but progress is not fast enough, it’s not fair enough and it’s very fragile. Parts of the state are dragging their heels. Big business is lobbying to delay or derail action, and some politicians are sowing disinformation and division for short-term gain.

“There’s been some media reporting that climate hasn’t been coming up on the doorsteps as much as it did four years ago. I doubt climate change came up that much on the doors in the Spanish General Election last year. But it’s on the doorsteps in Valencia and Malaga now.

“Whatever politicians are thinking right now, the next Government will be held responsible not just for reducing pollution in line with the binding emissions limits adopted by the 33rd Dáil but also for any climate impacts Ireland suffers from extreme weather over the next five years."