Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton tweeted on Nov 20th that
Today I secured government approval to draw up an all of government plan to make Ireland a leader in responding to climate change. The Plan will set out the actions to be taken by every government department and body to meet our climate commitment
and he intends to ” make Ireland a leader in responding to climate change”.
The Plan will set out the actions to be taken by every government department and body to meet our national, EU and international climate commitments.
However, as Gosego Moletsane writes in Green News .ie
“Ireland is well off track to meet both its 2020 or 2030 climate targets or to decarbonise the economy as planned by 2050, according to the State’s own expert climate advisory body. The latest projections from Ireland’s EPA is that on current trends, Ireland’s emissions will still be 13 per cent above 1990 levels in 2030.
The 2018 Climate Change Performance Index puts Ireland in 49th place out of a total of 56 countries identified in the study. Together, the 56 nations account for over 90 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Reported in joural.ie the minister conceded that the country is “far off course” and “way off target”. The climate action minister said a “huge step up” from government is required if Ireland is to play its part in cutting emissions.“Let’s be honest. This can’t be solved by government alone. A lot of it will be behavioural change. Buying into different lifestyles. A much deeper change.”
