MEP for Ireland East Nessa Childers criticised Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan’s recent policy shift on climate change, whereby the Government will now concentrate on ‘other initiatives’ before considering legislation.
A member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, which legislates for climate policy in Europe, Ms Childers said that Minister Hogan must abide by the Programme for Government and introduce a climate change bill.
“Only weeks before the UN climate conference in Durban, I am shocked at the apparent backtracking of Minister Hogan on climate change commitments promised in the Programme for Government,” she said.
“Labour Party members voted to enter Government with Fine Gael on the basis of that Programme for Government, and the commitment to a climate change bill is one of the most important parts of that agreement. To break this commitment would be to break the trust of that agreement with the Labour Party.”
Ireland’s most senior climate scientist, Prof John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth, said that the minister had been ‘undermined by vested interest groups’, and described the decision as ‘short-sighted’.
Earlier in the week, Minister Hogan had said that he would not impose sectoral emission targets in the interest of economic sustainability and food security – a move that is seen by some as a capitulation to agricultural lobbyists.
However, Nessa Childers said that a strong climate change bill would have a transformational impact on the Irish economy.
“Minister Hogan's attitude to this issue is all wrong. The 21st century race is on in building a green economy, that is where the sustainable jobs of the future are to be found,” she said.
“There is a clear economic win-win involved in pursuing higher targets too. Reductions in CO2 emissions of 30 per cent or even higher would have a revolutionary impact on the Irish economy.
“It would help create the dynamic and the demand needed to drive the development of the clean energy sector, leading to an increase in indigenous and sustainable green jobs,” said Ms Childers.
