An Taisce calls for climate to be a priority of Ireland's EU Presidency

Banner image: Speaking at the event were An Taisce's Board and Committee members. Seen pictured in the central image in the banner above from left to right on the steps of An Taisce's traditional HQ Tailors' Hall Dublin — Dr Tony Holohan, One Health Committee Chair, Professor John Sweeney, Climate Committee, Terri Morrissey, Chair of An Taisce, Dr Aideen Ó Dochartaigh, Climate Committee member, Helen Shaw, Climate Committee Chair, and the President of An Taisce Phil Kearney.

The EU Presidency's themes are Competitiveness, Security and Values but how does this translate to our climate priorities? An Taisce's expert briefing dismantled the data for a selection of media providing important insights and where Government spin starts to take over.

In recent weeks, a large amount of data and strategy documents have been released from the Government of Ireland but sometimes the numbers presented don't give a full picture of how we are doing as a country.

Facilitated by An Taisce's Climate Committee Chair, Helen Shaw and addressed by An Taisce' Chair, Terri Morrissey, the three presenters were Professor John Sweeney, Dr Aideen Ó Dochartaigh and Dr Tony Holohan. Each honed in on different facets of climate from their expert standpoints.

You can check out some of the media coverage around the briefing through these links: RTÉ 'Government urged to lead by example on climate during EU Presidency', Irish Independent 'Climate change expert accuses the Governement of 'spin' as Ireland lags far behind EU emissions cuts', ‘We are supercharging the extremes’: expert warns climate change is ‘topping up’ Ireland’s heatwave temperatures', and Virgin Media The Tonight Show 'Where's the plan for climate' panel discussion.

Climate Committee member Professor John Sweeney, Professor Emeritus of Geography and Climatologist Maynooth:

  • Download Professor Sweeney's full presentation slides — click here. 
  • Download 'Key Takeaway' notes — click here

Ireland is keen to present itself as a climate champion at international gatherings and to make commitments as part of what it identifies as part of a progressive group of nations. But when it comes to the implementation of commitments either at domestic or international level, short-term political considerations dominate. Meaningful mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions are avoided and tiny reductions 'spun' as major achievements. 

Baseline figures for our Carbon Budgets were reduced as 16 million tonnes of emissions were essentially written off. Currently, we are storing up problems for further down the road with this methodology.

The agricultural lobby is very influential both inside and outside Ireland through sister organisations in Brussels having exceptional influence on domestic and EU-level policy through lobbying. The agri-food industry effectively disenfranchises smaller farmers and organic farmers.

Emissions are a big concern from Irish agriculture, 94 per cent of our methane and 92 per cent of nitrous oxide come from this sector. On a per capita basis, these are the highest in Europe. Methane emissions per dairy cow are increasing steadily as intensification proceeds. Claims by Teagasc that EBI (Economic Breeding Index) improvements are reducing methane emissions per cow are not substantiated.

While the methodology for aggregating greenhouse gas emissions, Global Warming Potential (GWP₁₀₀) is unlikely to change before 2030, supplementary methods such as 'GWP*' provide a better measure of additional warming relative to a base year for short-lived pollutants such as methane. Using GWP*, Ireland's agricultural sector is found to be the joint largest contributor to total additional warming of any EU Member State since 1990.  

"The Government of Ireland portrays one message at an international level and another at the local level. We need to see through the spin of Ireland being a Climate Champion as the broad sweeping statements at international level aren't matched by actions at home.

"They are, for example, ignoring the Climate Change Act on three bills that are currently going through the Dáil, I think the downplaying of the Climate Act is something that will come back to rebound on the Government later on."

Climate Committee member Dr Aideen Ó Dochartaigh, Associate Professor in Accounting DCU

Investment needs for climate and biodiversity are enormous at €7bn per year. Funding from the EU and how that is managed in Ireland through effective policy is critical.

There is an €865bn national and regional partnership fund, 35 per cent tagged as climate funding – however flat for climate and biodiversity. This allocation is an incredibly blunt instrument. For the EU's Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034 – NGOs are calling for 50 per cent but EU has the allocation at 35 per cent (see above pie chart showing EU Budget breakdown. 

Member state policy is defining governance of the funds, ‘mainstreaming’ rather than 'ring fencing'. Using this blunt allocation method, airport terminals can theoretically be tagged as ‘environmental’ spending by individual member states. The categories and criteria of how this money can be allocated really do matter.

However, the 35 per cent spend is not a ceiling, it’s a floor, but defined ring fencing of eco-schemes is now gone. In terms of CAP, the members states will have more flexibility. Independent analysis of this budget are critical on how this is defined. Importantly, the EU Court of Auditors, the EU’s independent external audit institution responsible for checking how the EU budget is collected and spent, and for ensuring accountability and transparency in EU finances have highlighted concerns that the budget is not meeting climate goals. Another note is that the overall 35 per cent is over the whole EU but member states can compensate between each other how this done and horse trading can happen between them to get to a collective total amount.

Tension between Ireland’s climate obligations and economic policies are evident. There's also a danger that Ireland is there in in the EU fighting the corner of the tech companies as opposed to fighting the corner of Irish citizens whose electricity bills are set to go up due to data centres putting so much pressure on the grid. Their concentration in Ireland can have an outsized impact on our climate goals.

Useful resources

One Health Commitee Chair and An Taisce Board member Dr Tony Holohan, Director of the One Health Centre at UCD:

The Climate Emergency's impacts on human health are already occurring. We have sufficient evidence to know that the climate crisis is manifesting many types of impacts on human health right now. More extreme weather, including heat, is a significant threat to populations through higher rates of spread of global disease but also incidents of stroke, for example. Stroke is impacted by dehydration and limits our ability to be resilient. There is also an increased mental health burden as a consequence of climate shift. 

Direct impacts of climate on health were very notable in recent weeks as heatwaves were a cause of thousands of excess deaths across Europe. In addition, widespread wildfires have killed people in several EU countries and the resultant poor air quality affects millions.

Our health service hasn't had to focus on aggregating or curating data on physical and mental health impacts from heatwaves. But now we are in our second heat dome event this summer and 'El Nino' projections indicate there will be a third. We can see France and UK have had to produce real-time data on health impacts since the heatwaves of 2003. Ireland will most likely see outcomes from these recent heat events in our overall statistical health data that will show excess deaths and incidents of stroke but there will be a time lag for this information.

We need to move away from sector specific ideas and truly understand a systems approach to the effects of climate change, create connections and deliver solutions. Unfairness on societies for health are the same issues. Sectoral discussions benefit from joined up thinking and applying knowledge. 

We know how to prevent 80 per cent of chronic disease, but we have an economy that in large-part exists as an enabler of those diseases. Alongside food insecurity, there are also more cheap calories available that give those marginalised groups no choice and creates an obesogenic environmental burden on communities least able to cope.

Public literacy around these issues, creating understanding in our daily lives is a key strategy in in our means of addressing them. Creating resilience, protection and preparedness in a highly-informed society are key challenges. We need to deal honestly about equity and acknowledge that the climate crisis is a burden on our most vulnerable. It is very important that we empower people to understand the impacts of their decision-making, combat mis- and dis-information, and enable a Government to deliver systems to address these challenges in a fair and effective way.

We do need better research. The challenge is one of implementation. We have a developed economy but we think in silos and need to think in systems.

"Climate is manifesting on our well-being right now, and there are actions that we can take that we know can be effective in both helping us to adapt and helping us to mitigate and prevent these things from happening," 

The EU Presidency offers Ireland an important opportunity to shape Europe’s direction on climate. We're facing our own challenges in terms of energy, water, and food security. All of these issues are impacting citizens across Europe. We know the solutions to these and there are important political choices we need to make to face the climate emergency.

Speaker bios

  • Professor John Sweeney is a prominent Emeritus Professor of Geography at Maynooth University, renowned for his climate change research and public outreach in Ireland. A former contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, he focuses extensively on climatology and bridging the gap between scientific communities and the public. Long-serving voluntary relationship with An Taisce and a member of An Taisce Climate Committee.
  • Dr Tony Holohan is a public health physician with decades of experience in leadership, governance, and strategic policy at the highest levels. As Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer from 2008 to 2022, he led the national response to COVID-19 and today directs the UCD One Health Centre which is the first WHO Collaborating Centre on One Health in Europe. He works to advance a whole-systems understanding of health- one that integrates the human, animal, plant and environmental dimensions. He serves on the An Taisce Board and chairs its One Health Committee.
  • Dr Aideen Ó Dochartaigh is Associate Professor in Accounting at DCU School of Business. She is an expert in sustainability accounting and responsible business methodology. Aideen O Dochartaigh research is interdisciplinary in nature and incorporates environmental social and governance (ESG) reporting practice and regulation, carbon accounting and budgeting, the circular economy and the bioeconomy. Aideen previously qualified as a chartered accountant (FCA), training in practice with Deloitte Ireland, and completed her PhD on sustainability accounting at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She serves on a pro bono basis on the An Taisce Climate Committee and works on a voluntary basis with several climate and social justice community groups and NGOs in Ireland.

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Author: valerie veetter

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