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Your selected constituency is Mayo. If this is correct complete the form below to send a message to your TDs. If this is the wrong constituency then use the dropdown menu to select the correct one.

TDs in the Mayo constituency

Minister Dara Calleary (FF)

Deputy Rose Conway Walsh (SF)

Deputy Alan Dillon (FG)

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Dear ... ,
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I'm a constituent and I'm emailing to ask you to act on my behalf to ensure Ireland's Climate Action Plan is not undermined. I'm concerned by media reports about the negotiations on setting sectoral targets for climate pollution. Lobbying from vested interests in the agri sector to have the lowest possible target risks totally undermining the urgent climate action the Dáil has overwhelmingly voted for. I am asking that you call on the three Government party leaders to demand that the Government deliver sectoral emission ceilings which add up to our agreed carbon budget and which are fair to all sectors of Irish society. 
Given the growing threat of climate breakdown, I was relieved when TDs passed the Climate Action Act just a year ago by 129 votes to 10. As you know, that set a legal commitment to cut our polluting emissions by 51% by 2030. And just a couple of months ago there was cross-party consensus again when the Dáil adopted the national carbon budget, breaking that 10 year target into two five-year ceilings on total emissions.
It’s really worrying that lobby groups could undermine this new approach to climate action almost immediately as Ministers divide that national pollution budget into sectoral ceilings.
The Government published indicative pollution reduction ranges for each sector last November. It was immediately obvious from analysis by the likes of Professor Hannah Daly in UCC that every sector would have to achieve the maximum end of its reduction range if we are to hit our overall 2030 target.
So it is very troubling that agriculture is now the only sector that has not accepted the higher end of the range as its 2030 target. Agriculture has already been given “special consideration” as promised; its maximum target is a 30% reduction, as compared to 81% for electricity, 50% for transport, 41% for industry, and 56% for buildings.
But vested interests are demanding that agriculture’s target be no more than 22% and it looks like that pressure is shaping how the Minister for Agriculture is approaching the target-setting process. Given we now have a 51% overall target in law, if agriculture only did 22% the rest of the economy and society would have to cut emissions more than three times as much and three times as fast, by 68% by 2030.
The rest of us cutting twice as fast as agriculture is just about possible but asking everyone else to cut three times as much, three times as fast, is neither fair nor feasible. Indeed, Prof Hannah Daly’s analysis on what that would mean in practical terms found it to be “completely implausible”. For example, if the onus fell on transport to close the emissions gap, it would mean removing 1 in 4 cars from the road on top of meeting the existing target of electrifying close to 1 million cars, and for society, it would mean an additional spend of €5,000 per household this decade. 
The scientists who wrote the most recent UN climate report made it clear that “it’s now or never” for action to limit global warming to 1.5C and prevent complete climate and biodiversity breakdown. Every sector has to step up, and we need the TDs who voted for the climate law and approved the carbon budgets to help turn our binding targets into serious action.
As my TD, I’m asking you to raise the concerns with Government party leaders  in any way you can in the days before the Government makes its decision. Can you raise my concern with the Taoiseach and at meetings with your parliamentary colleagues?
If the sectoral targets are distorted by intense lobbying by vested interests, it will lead to unfair burdens on householders, motorists and others. Or worse, if ministers bow to demands from certain agri-industry players, the targets for electricity and other sectors will become absurd and the credibility of the whole effort will collapse.
That would be a disastrous development, just as Ireland is beginning to get serious about climate action. Please let me know what you can do in the next few days to prevent this outcome and ensure fair sectoral emissions ceilings.

Yours sincerely,
(your name and address will be added here)

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Categorised in:: Climate Change
Tagged with:: Faster and Fairer Climate Action

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