Politicians here last week published a cross-party consensus report for action on climate change. That report itself followed a Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on climate change. There is any number of reports, nationally and internationally, on what is the most pressing issue of the century. The evidence is incontrovertible. Climate science has achieved an unprecedented degree of robustness, providing authoritative evidence of global temperature increase and associated features such as accelerating sea level rise, shrinking sea ice, glacier retreat and extreme events such as heat waves. However, Ireland can not act in isolation. No country can. But Ireland must act. The time for excuses for inaction is at an end. Now is the time for action in Ireland and around the world.
In 2018, most of the natural hazards which affected nearly 62m people were associated with extreme weather and climate events. Floods continued to affect the largest number of people, more than 35m. There were 14 “billion dollar disasters” in 2018 in the United States of America alone. More than 1,600 deaths have been associated with intense heat waves and wildfires in Europe, Japan and USA, according to the World Meteorological Organisation last week. Exposure of the agriculture sector to climate extremes is threatening to reverse gains made in ending malnutrition. New evidence shows a continuing rise in world hunger after a prolonged decline. Out of the 17.7m Internally Displaced Persons, over two million were displaced due to disasters linked to weather and climate events as of September 2018, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The report from the all-party Committee on Climate Action, which contains 40 realisable recommendations, sets out an achievable policy platform in Ireland for the next 15 years. Committee members were largely in agreement as to the scale of the issue and the need for action, but were divided on the issue of carbon taxes. This is an important issue, but should not derail the action plan set out in the report. Carbon taxes would see the price of a bag of coal cost €10. Many people can not afford that much. The case for retrofitting homes is crucial in this context. The Committee recommends a needs assessment to ascertain what is required to deliver the planned rate of energy retrofitting of 45,000 homes a year by 2021, and to explore increasing this to 75,000 year. But as the Green Party leader, Eamon Ryan has said, last year a total of just 220 homes were retrofitted in this country. In a nutshell, that outlines the scale of the challenge ahead. Citizens will need to be helped in making the transition to lower carbon lifestyles including through innovative financing options such as low-interest loans.
However, there can be no excuse to shy away from the challenge at hand. Future generations demand it. Many of the proposals made by the Committee are not new.
For example, it has been evident for some time that there is a need for a bottom-up approach to address rising emissions in agriculture and support the sector to transition to a low emission model. There is also a need to develop this country’s capacity in renewable energies and renewable electricity in particular. The report heralds a new beginning in Irish climate policy. It would be unforgivable were that to turn out not to be the case.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Editorial: 'Climate change in Ireland and beyond'
Editorial: 'Climate change in Ireland and beyond'
Politicians here last week published a cross-party consensus report for action on climate change. That report itself followed a Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on climate change. There is any number of reports, nationally and internationally, on what is the most pressing issue of the century. The evidence is incontrovertible. Climate science has achieved an unprecedented degree of robustness, providing authoritative evidence of global temperature increase and associated features such as accelerating sea level rise, shrinking sea ice, glacier retreat and extreme events such as heat waves. However, Ireland can not act in isolation. No country can. But Ireland must act. The time for excuses for inaction is at an end. Now is the time for action in Ireland and around the world.
In 2018, most of the natural hazards which affected nearly 62m people were associated with extreme weather and climate events. Floods continued to affect the largest number of people, more than 35m. There were 14 “billion dollar disasters” in 2018 in the United States of America alone. More than 1,600 deaths have been associated with intense heat waves and wildfires in Europe, Japan and USA, according to the World Meteorological Organisation last week. Exposure of the agriculture sector to climate extremes is threatening to reverse gains made in ending malnutrition. New evidence shows a continuing rise in world hunger after a prolonged decline. Out of the 17.7m Internally Displaced Persons, over two million were displaced due to disasters linked to weather and climate events as of September 2018, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
The report from the all-party Committee on Climate Action, which contains 40 realisable recommendations, sets out an achievable policy platform in Ireland for the next 15 years. Committee members were largely in agreement as to the scale of the issue and the need for action, but were divided on the issue of carbon taxes. This is an important issue, but should not derail the action plan set out in the report. Carbon taxes would see the price of a bag of coal cost €10. Many people can not afford that much. The case for retrofitting homes is crucial in this context. The Committee recommends a needs assessment to ascertain what is required to deliver the planned rate of energy retrofitting of 45,000 homes a year by 2021, and to explore increasing this to 75,000 year. But as the Green Party leader, Eamon Ryan has said, last year a total of just 220 homes were retrofitted in this country. In a nutshell, that outlines the scale of the challenge ahead. Citizens will need to be helped in making the transition to lower carbon lifestyles including through innovative financing options such as low-interest loans.
However, there can be no excuse to shy away from the challenge at hand. Future generations demand it. Many of the proposals made by the Committee are not new.
For example, it has been evident for some time that there is a need for a bottom-up approach to address rising emissions in agriculture and support the sector to transition to a low emission model. There is also a need to develop this country’s capacity in renewable energies and renewable electricity in particular. The report heralds a new beginning in Irish climate policy. It would be unforgivable were that to turn out not to be the case.
Source: Read Full Article