Plan shows Government in Denial over Climate Change

5 years in the making, climate "action plan" contains no new actions to reduce pollution

Enda Kenny just doesn't get climate change. We can only hope his successor as Taoiseach does

Responding to the publication today of the Government's long-awaited draft National Mitigation Plan to cut climate-changing emissions, Friends of the Earth Director, Oisin Coghlan said:

"This plan shows Enda Kenny's Government is in denial over climate change. They don't deny the science but they deny what it means.

"They deny the urgency to act. They puzzle over the exact cost of any given action and give no thought at all to cost of inaction. Or to the impacts climate change is already having in Ireland and around the world.

"How can I tell Enda and his ministers are in denial?"Because this 'action plan' contains no new actions, no new measures to actually reduce pollution.

"The first consultation on this plan was in 2012. And five years later they launch another consultation on options because they don't want to take any decisions."Contrast the lack of concrete commitments in this plan to the National Recovery Plan in 2010 or the Action Plan for Jobs, or the plan for agricultural expansion.

"At the UN climate summit in Paris in December 2015 Enda Kenny told the assembled world leaders that 'Ireland is determined to play its part'

"Today's plan exposes Enda's pledge in Paris as empty platitudes. The plan shows a determination to dither and delay not a determination to act.

"Maybe it's a generational thing. Enda Kenny just doesn't get climate change. We can only hope his successor as Taoiseach does".

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition background briefing on Ireland's climate policy and 5 tests for the National Mitigation Plan is here: http://bit.ly/SCC_5tests