People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has accused the government of “speaking out of both sides of its mouth” in reaction to the announcement of an ‘all of government approach to climate change’ by new Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton.
She pointed out that a number of weeks ago Sean Canney was defending the ‘benefits of the oil and gas industry’ in front of a meeting of fossil fuel companies in Dublin and deriding the People Before Profit Climate Emergency Bill which would ban the issuing of further licences for fossil fuels. She said that this double speak on behalf of government was very serious in light of the most recent IPCC report which showed that, on a global scale, there is a window of only 12 years to avoid catastrophic climate change.
She said that Ireland remains a laggard in the fight against climate change as the new minister has admitted that Ireland will not meet our 2020, 2030 or 2050 targets.
It was reported today that Ireland’s emissions have in fact gone up since last year- this is a shocking indictment of where governments thinking is on the issue of climate change, according to Deputy Smith.
She said:
“Minister Bruton’s proposal for an all of government approach to climate change is nothing more than sloppy doublespeak.
“We hear a lot of grand rhetoric from Leo Varadkar and now Richard Bruton about our climate targets and obligations under the Paris Treaty and now climate proofing of every department. At the same time, the government have been deriding the People Before Profit Climate Emergency Bill which would ban the issuing of any more licences for fossil fuel extraction.
“What government say and what government do appear to be two very different things when it comes to climate change, only this time we know that Minister Canney has let the cat out of the bag.
“We know from the IPCC report that we only have 12 years to avoid a climate catastrophe and yet the government are not willing to take the radical action that has been called for in response to the environmental crisis.”