The Climate Crisis: A Lack of Intent from Ireland?

This April at the Climate Summit 2021, world leaders spelt out their ambitious plans to tackle the climate crisis. Biden, hosting the summit, invited 40 countries. Ireland, sadly, was not amongst them.

The Climate Summit, which lasted one week, felt like a contest: who was going to make the boldest promise? China went as far as to pledge carbon neutrality by 2060, France insisted on social and climate justice saying one could not go without the other, and Canada said its new climate target was to attain net-zero by 2050. Boris Johnson even went as far as to claim that world leaders “see the obligations” of developed countries to “do more.”

Unfortunately, if you were to ask me what Ireland’s goals were and how it was planning to reach them, I honestly couldn’t tell you. The main action I saw coming from Ireland was the initiative to launch its own climate conference, presented as a “pre COP26 call to action”: the Dublin Climate Dialogues Conference. The online event, attended by the United Nations and multiple developed countries, resulted in the publication of a one-page “set of recommendations” for the leading delegate of the UK Presidency of COP26 commissions. Amongst those suggestions were the electrification of the global economy, a just transition from fossil fuels, and the delivery of public pathways intended to help countries with their transition to net-zero.

For Ireland, the primary suggestion was to build more partnerships to ensure a green transition supported by a healthy financial sector. This, unfortunately, remains to this day a mere recommendation.

The Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, gave a ringing endorsement of the Dublin Climate Dialogues Conference, saying that the event had been a “strong platform for progress”, “thought-provoking” and had come at a “timely” moment. He later added that Ireland had “stepped up its game on climate action.” The entire facade sounded like yet another pat on the back from idle politicians.

The good news here is that it looks like Ireland is finally going to turn its promises into “concrete energy policies and actions to be adopted at CO26.” The bad news? Think about how many countries have already pledged to do that. The last thing we need is yet more empty promises on how to solve the crisis. The World Meteorological Organisation recently published its findings: there is a 40% chance the world’s temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius within five years. We need actions. And we need them now.