The release of the latest UN report on climate change is "a stark reminder that we have limited time" to prevent the worst of climate change, Minister for Environment and Climate Eamon Ryan has said.
The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found it is now “unequivocal” that human activity has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land – with widespread and rapid changes across the world. It also found the opportunity for humans to take action to reverse or even slow the process was closing.
Mr Ryan warned that the cost of ignoring climate change would be “catastrophic”.
He said the Government would shortly publish the Climate Action Plan which would detail measures needed to reach Ireland’s 2030 climate action targets.
These would include “more renewable energy, decreased transport emissions, changes in how we heat our homes and how we grow our food and look after our land. These steps will be challenging but they will also create new opportunities, ” he said.
He said the United Nations climate change conference, also known as COP26, scheduled for November would be “a critical juncture, where all countries must also agree solutions to support the most vulnerable in the world who face unprecedented climate extremes”.
The Minister said that the consequences of failing to bring Ireland’s carbon emissions down would be “beyond compare”. There was a need to move quickly because “the window for action is closing”.
Mr Ryan was speaking on both Newstalk and RTÉ prior to the publication of a new UN report which states humans are causing climate change. For Ireland, the first key thing that needed to be done was to stop using fossil fuels.
Farmers were the frontline of the climate response, Mr Ryan said, as they would manage the climate change that is to come, and also change the way land was monitored in order to reduce emissions, restore biodiversity and lower pollution at the same time.
“Doing nothing is not an option. The science is ever clearer and unequivocal. It’s our future we are talking about.”
‘Savage indictment’
Professor John Sweeney of Maynooth University described the report as “a savage indictment” of “humanity’s stewardship of the planet since the industrial revolution”.
Prof Sweeney contributed to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He told RTÉ’s News at One the “acid test” of the Government’s response to the crisis would be to have an annual test to see whether Government departments were delivering on the promises that they had made. This would indicate that the country was serious about tackling climate change, he said.
But while he said the lesson was “our actions have consequences”, he said he was now more optimistic than he had been three years ago. He quoted bishop Desmond Tutu who used the phrase “we are prisoners of hope”.
“That’s all we have to grasp on to now,” he added.
Irish Farmers’ Association president Tim Cullinan said Irish farmers could be a big part of climate action, if they were supported by Government.
“By using our natural advantage to produce carbon efficient foods, increasing the production of renewable energy on farms and with greater removal of carbon from the atmosphere, we can positively contribute to meeting the climate change challenge”, he said.
Mr Cullinan said the current climate Bill recognised the carbon storage capabilities of Irish farms, which he said was “an important acknowledgement that farmers can contribute towards making Ireland net carbon zero by 2050”.
“The report is clear. We must limit the use of fossil fuels and stop deforestation if we have a chance to stop the effects of climate change and limit global warming,” he said. Mr Cullinan said farmers recognised the need to reduce methane and would “continue to work to reduce methane emissions in agriculture”, but he said it was “vital that Government puts the structures in place to support farmers on this journey”.
He also warned food production should not be unnecessarily threatened, “especially when the report highlights that one of the expected impacts of climate change will be a loss of food production capacity”.
Financial supports
Irish international charity Concern Worldwide also referred to the effect of climate change on poorer countries, which it said were “already severely hit by the effects of climate change and need more help from wealthier and higher polluting nations”.
The humanitarian organisation which works in 23 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, said communities they work with need financial and other supports to adapt to climate-driven disasters, which are becoming more frequent.
The organisation called for “significantly more action and commitments ahead of the COP26 conference, which is to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
“The impacts of climate change are being felt now,” said Concern Worldwide’s senior policy officer, Sally Tyldesley. “It is grossly unfair that lower-income countries that have contributed the least to carbon emissions are already suffering the worst consequences of climate change,” she said.
Oisín Coghlan, director of Friends of the Earth, has described today’s IPCC assessment report on climate change as a “final wake-up call” to governments and citizens to treat climate breakdown as the over-riding global emergency it is.
Mr Coghlan said there was “still a narrow path to avoid complete catastrophe but we are not on it and the window of opportunity to get on to it is closing fast”.
“What’s crystal clear now is that every time the Government faces a policy choice we need them to choose the option that reduces emissions rather than the one that raises emissions. That may sound obvious but it is all too often not what happens. We have to start treating climate action like the emergency it is,” he said.
The charity Oxfam said very few nations “and none of the world’s wealthy nations have submitted climate plans consistent with keeping warming below 2°C, let alone 1.5°C. The IPCC report must spur governments to act together and build a fairer and greener global economy to ensure the world stays within 1.5°C of warming. They must cement this in Glasgow”, Oxfam said.
In political reaction to the report, the Social Democrats said the report was a stark reminder that “time is running out to avert a climate catastrophe”.
Spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said “in 2018, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar described Ireland as a climate ‘laggard’ and said we needed to do much more to tackle climate change. Despite this admission, little has changed in the intervening period. Most recently, we failed to meet our 2020 emission reduction targets.”
“The Government must move from climate rhetoric to climate action. There is an urgency now in implementing measures that will see profound, prolonged and sustained reductions in our carbon emissions. Time is running out and failure is not an option,” she said.
