Ireland must use international positions to advocate on climate change – Farrell

The Government must use its positions on the UN Security Council and within the EU to be a leading voice for action on climate change following today’s release of a landmark UN climate report, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Fine Gael Climate Action Spokesperson and Dublin Fingal TD Deputy Alan Farrell said, “This morning, Monday August 9^th, saw the release of a major study into the effects of climate change and what we can do to avoid the most dire of circumstances.

“This report is a sobering look at the state of the planet and the effects that human activity has had, and will continue to have, risking millions of lives in the process and changing our world forever.

“We simply do not have any more time to postpone or defer the radical decision-making we need on a global level to avoid disaster. I believe that Ireland, having passed ambitious legislation to tackle emissions in the form of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill, combined with our role in the European Union and our seat on the UN Security Council, has the opportunity to speak for hundreds of millions of people around the world. We should not, and cannot, afford to let this moment pass us.”

Deputy Farrell continued, “The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details the increase in wildfires, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events that we will continue to see. It also highlights that many of the climate change impacts we feel today will be irreversible for centuries or even millennia.

“While these are frightening prospects, we must also recognise that by taking decisive global action now, we can avoid some of the very worst scenarios and save lives. The world must make profound cuts to emissions, and while this will not be easy, over the past 18 months we’ve seen unprecedented levels of action taken to address the Covid-19 pandemic on an international level. We must now harness this attitude and urgency to act on climate change.

“Make no mistake – this will affect every nation, big and small, regardless of geography, demographics or economic status. I believe that we can still do the right thing and save our children and grandchildren from this spectre and instead leave a more hopeful legacy as the generation that finally, at long last, rose to the urgency of climate change,” concluded Deputy Farrell.