"State failed spectacularly to meet our 2020 emissions targets" - O'Rourke

The current governments track record on climate change doesn't inspire confidence that we can meet the necessary emissions targets for 2030, Deputy Darren O'Rourke commented as the Climate Change Advisory Council outlined the new, more ambitious targets this week.

The Sinn Fein spokesperson on Climate Action told his party's Ard Fheis at the weekend that the climate and biodiversity crisis we face is the challenge of our generation.

"Failure to take radical and ambitious action now will lead to devastating consequences for our planet over the coming decades,” he said.

Deputy O'Rourke is attending the UN Conference of the Parties, COP26 in Glasgow this week as part of a Sinn Fein delegation.

"In Ireland we can already feel the effects of global warming and biodiversity loss, while other regions of the world are experiencing increasingly intense fires, floods and famine.

"We have a moral obligation to move towards a zero-carbon future to try and limit global warming, and in government, north and south, Sinn Féin will pursue this objective.”

He pointed out that the state failed spectacularly to meet our 2020 EU emissions targets, achieving just a seven per cent reduction - a third of the 20 per cent legally binding commitment that was given.

"A negligent attitude to climate action and contradictory policies pursued by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens over the past fifteen years lies at the very heart of this failure,” he said.

"In the same way that housing or health won’t be fixed under Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, our climate crisis, the impending climate catastrophe, won’t be adequately addressed with these two conservative parties at the helm.”

Deputy O'Rourke said his party wants to be in government to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis here, while protecting workers, families and communities in the process.

"Under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s climate austerity approach, climate action equals carbon tax. Nothing more.

"They wear the carbon tax as a badge of honour, ignoring the key fact that most people simply have no alternatives to move to.

"In our recent Alternative Budget, Sinn Féin showed a different way is possible.

"Instead of hiking carbon tax like other parties, we showed that equal and indeed greater investment in key areas such as retrofitting, can be achieved without increasing already exorbitant fuel costs for families.

"We also proposed investing in public transport and school transport, expanding capacity and reducing fares, to reduce road emissions; providing increased grants for those on lower incomes to help with the cost of new and second hand electric vehicles; allocating more funding for organic farming; and helping communities develop and own local renewable energy projects, for example, community solar.

"Our proposals show that climate action can have tangible benefits for workers and families and not just consist of more taxes on the things people can’t yet do without.”

"The idea of breaking ordinary workers and families and rural communities with taxes while treating industry with kid gloves, rolling out the red carpet for data centres and sending vague "signals to the market", will not work.

"We need leadership. Private interests will serve private interests. Governments need to lead. Leaders need to lead. Communities, particularly those in countries and sectors on the frontline need to be protected. Now is the time to act," he said.