The Labour Party leader, Ivana Bacik, has said “no one believes the government can meet its climate targets”.
Addressing the 72nd Labour Party National Conference in Cork this evening (Saturday, March 25) she said:
“Ireland has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% over the next seven years – by 2030.
“But no one believes the government can meet its climate targets.
“They talk a good game, but they cannot deliver.”
The Labour leader urged delegates at the party conference not to ” just take my word for it, look at what they say themselves.”
Deputy Bacik said:
“In December the government published their latest glossy climate action plan.
“The plan identified six key target areas. One of these is land use – critical in a biodiversity crisis. We know we need significant increase in forestry cover, rapid movement on rewetting bogland and creating carbon sinks.
“But the government have no emissions reduction target for changing land use. The plan is blank. Nothing.”
The Labour leader claimed that this was because the “government won’t be honest with people about the scale of the challenge”.
Deputy Bacik said she would be honest and added:
“On agriculture, we have to change the way we farm – working with farming families and food producers to achieve sustainable rural communities.
But she did not elaborate further on how the Labour Party planned to do this.
The Labour leader also told her party conference that she wanted to share her vision which she said was “a Labour vision, for Ireland’s future”.
Deputy Bacik said she wanted to “focus on ambition. On what this country can become”.
“Ireland can become a leader on climate action. We are now on the cusp of what could be enormous, positive change.
“This change will take courage, it will take honesty and it will take vision,” the Labour leader added.
But she claimed that the government did not get this.
Deputy Bacik said there had been some progress.
“But they lack the necessary ambition and political unity to deliver for the environment.
“Struggling with internal dissent, they are driven by compromise, not conviction. And we have seen far too many delayed and missed targets on climate,” she said.