Cop26: Taoiseach says it is not ‘too late’ to turn tide on climate change

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has told fellow leaders at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow that Ireland's policies reflect the country's confidence that the aim of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees can be achieved with fairness.

Mr Martin said the legally binding target of reducing emissions by more than half by 2030 will help to ensure that Ireland reaches climate neutrality by 2050.

“We do not believe or accept, as some would have it, that it is too late; that the transition will be too costly; that it is inevitable that we will leave people behind; that someone else should shoulder the load,” he said.

“We believe in the immense capacity of humans to work together and to achieve great things. If we act decisively now, we will offer humanity the most valuable prize of all - a liveable planet.”

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The Taoiseach said a cooler and more biodiverse world “with healthier air for us to breathe, healthier soil for things to grow in” could be achieved.

“A world in which people can live more sustainable lives, handing a healing and enriched planet to future generations. We can create a world in which human impact on all parts of our ecosphere - the land, the sea, the air - is brought back into balance,” he said.

Announcing the more than doubling of Ireland’s annual contribution to climate finance for poor countries to €225 million by 2025, Mr Martin said that the developed world, which contributed most to the problem, had an obligation to support those most acutely challenged by its consequences.

Many hurdles

He told reporters earlier that presentations at the summit from smaller states and low income countries brought home the message that climate change was very real for them already.

“It’s not something in the distant future in terms of an existential crisis for their societies and the need in terms of climate finance is to make it more practical in terms of its distribution, its allocation and operationalisation,” he said.

“In other words, there are many hurdles to accessing climate finance for these countries and there really was a plea from the heart at yesterday’s afternoon session to really change and improve upon that.”

The Taoiseach refused to be drawn ahead of the publication of the Government’s climate action plan on the consequences for Irish farmers of a pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30 per cent. He said the Government was talking about stabilising the national dairy herd after what he described as “exponential” growth over the last decade since EU quotas were removed.

“I don’t see that level happening over the next decade, but I would like to see a range of diverse activities on farms into the future and people looking creatively at other income sources as well. And I think that needs to happen more quickly than it has happened to date,” he said.