Emissions projections are “an alarm bell Government cannot afford to ignore”

Friends of the Earth has described the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) projections [1] for Ireland’s polluting emissions, published today, as “an alarm bell Government cannot afford to ignore”. The EPA’s report indicates that Ireland has gone backwards in its actions to tackle polluting emissions, predicting, at-best, a 23% reduction by 2030, lower than the 29% reduction projected last year and a far cry from the 51% commitment in climate law.

Commenting, Seán McLoughlin, Climate Policy Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said:

“Put simply, these projections are a blaring alarm bell that we cannot afford to ignore. Since May of last year, when the EPA’s previous projections were released, we have seen the west of Ireland battered by the climate-supercharged Storm Éoywn, Valencia submerged in extreme floods, and Los Angeles seared by ferocious wildfires. In the face of this escalating climate crisis, the Government’s failure to act - slowing, stalling, and now reversing course as per these EPA figures - is simply unacceptable.”

“It’s now high time for the Government to stop paying lip service to climate action. This Government has said that it is committed to Ireland’s legally binding climate law, but these emission projections show that the Government’s on-the-ground actions are not living up to that.”

“The Government should be doing things that both reduce our emissions and make ordinary 

peoples’ lives better, such as insulating houses, improving public transport and restricting energy guzzling data centres; that would give us cleaner, healthier air to breathe, it would give us warmer homes, it would make our lives better. By failing to take sufficient action to address the climate crisis and running headlong into paying billions in EU penalties, the Government appears to be siding more with the powerful polluters than ordinary people.”

“The time is now to stand up and demand faster and fairer climate action. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with those are most impacted by climate change and the systems that cause it; be that people in Mayo and Kerry whose roofs were ripped off by storms supercharged by climate change, renters and social housing tenants who cannot afford to heat their badly insulated homes with expensive fossil fuels or farmers in Zimbabwe suffering through climate-induced crop failures.”

ENDS

NOTES

1. The latest EPA Emission Projections are available to download and read here: https://www.epa.ie/publications/monitoring--assessment/climate-change/air-emissions/irelands-greenhouse-gas-emissions-projections-2024-2055.php