The government has been awarded an overall B- grade in fulfilling its own promises to address climate change and protect the environment, according to a new report published today (Tuesday, August 27).
An independent panel of experts, commissioned by the environmental charity, Friends of the Earth, assessed the government on almost 300 climate-related commitments in the Programme for Government.
In upgrading the government from a C+ grade last year, the experts acknowledge Ireland has “turned a corner”.
The report states that the government has achieved “a good degree of what they set out to accomplish and laid some of the foundations to build a sustainable country”.
However, the report concludes that Programme for Government commitments were “not enough to achieve a truly sustainable society or meet our national and international climate targets”.
Nature Restoration Law
The experts said the government “went beyond their original promises by playing an outsized role in passing of the EU Nature Restoration Law and enacting legislation for a Climate and Nature Fund”.
Although the NRL was not a commitment in the Programme for Government, the experts said that it will have long term positive impacts, including climate targets, pesticide use, and urban biodiversity.
To address Ireland’s biodiversity crisis, the expert panel said that the next government should “immediately implement the Nature Restoration Law and develop the National Restoration Plan”.
“To achieve this, there needs to be adequate resources to fund restoration projects on both private and public lands,” they said.
“While we are relieved that Ireland has turned a corner away from our ‘climate laggard’ origins, this is just the start of a long and important journey for Irish society, and momentum will have to accelerate over successive governments to make Ireland a genuinely sustainable economy,” they said.
In this fourth and final report card for Friends of the Earth, the experts identified six areas where the next government would need to make additional commitments, including planning for fossil fuel phase out and sustainable agriculture.
Agriculture and forestry
The experts noted that while progress in the agriculture and forestry category improved to a score of 5 this year, overall progress “remains poor”.
Last year, the panel described the government’s lack of progress in its agriculture and forestry commitments as “flirting with failure” and gave them a score of 4.
“This year, a 4.6% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture along with noticeable progress in several schemes demonstrated that, for the first time, this government is putting options on the table for farming families to engage in the low-carbon transition.
“Most notably, the extent of organically farmed land has trebled in the lifetime of this government and the launch of a National Biomethane Strategy is a welcome development towards diversification,” the report said.
The experts said that “progress in forestry remains very poor and land remains a source of emissions rather than a sink”.
They also said that “the impact of intensive farming on water quality also continues to be a serious concern”.
Report
Commenting on the findings in the report, chair of the independent expert panel, Dr. Cara Augustenborg, said:
“We are turning a corner toward a more sustainable Ireland but still have a long way to go to address worrying trends in environmental health.
“I hope this process shows the next government that we are always watching, and civil society will continue to demand more ambition and faster implementation of environmental commitments in any future Programme for Government.”
Dr. Diarmuid Torney, associate professor, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University (DCU), and one of the independent experts, said that the government has done enough to merit moving from last year’s C+ grade to a B-.
“Nonetheless, the government shouldn’t be content to rest on their laurels. The progress achieved needs to be sustained over the years ahead.
“As we move into an election cycle and the formation of a new government, it is important that all parties commit to continuing and strengthening action on climate and environment in the years ahead,” he said.
Another member of the expert panel, Dr. Paul Deane, senior lecturer in clean energy futures, at the MaREI centre, University College Cork (UCC) added that “the government has laid a good foundation to build a decarbonised future”.
“The challenge now is to build the structure at speed. Ireland has not lacked ambition when it comes to climate, but it has lacked agility, and this will be the challenge for the next government,” he said.
Reacting to the independent assessment, Oisin Coghlan, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said that the independent assessment shows that “when a government prioritises an issue in the Programme for Government, progress is possible”.
“Climate polluting emissions have begun to fall. But it also shows that the initial commitments in the Programme for Government are critical.
“That’s why Friends of the Earth will now be pushing all the political parties heading into the general election to commit to the faster and fairer climate action we need to stay within the binding limits on pollution we have agreed to under both Irish and EU law,” he said.