Sinn Féin and Fine Gael on wrong side of history regarding climate crisis

Sinn Féin, the alternative government and party of change, is absent without leave on climate change. In an Ireland that perfected the art of practising religions in which it doesn’t believe, the need for reformation in the face of climate Armageddon is the latest piety to be mumbled and disregarded. Sinn Féin senses this and mumbles platitudes but disregards principles accordingly.

The mumbling matters because it gives comfort to those in the party who require reassurance. It matters more because as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) laid bare last week, the Ireland that will be led by the next Government from 2025 to 2030 will be far behind in its commitments. It will be no country for a faint-hearted government on climate.

Shunning the change required to tackle climate change is status quo politics. It also manages a coalition of voters who could leave Sinn Féin as quickly as they arrived. The party is wary of discomforting, let alone confronting, them. Sinn Féin presents itself differently to different audiences. In that, it is like other parties, but it manages the ambiguity more successfully. If its position on climate can only be read between the lines of the little it says, that matters.

An Opposition party without clear commitments on climate falls far short of being an alternative government

As the Sinn Féin tent grows, its internal ideological cohesion diminishes. That is dealt with by quietly moving on from previous positions, avoiding difficult new issues, while turning up the volume on the rest. And the rest leaves the party a lot to work with. The intensive criticism of Government on climate, without game-changing commitments of its own, is tactically savvy. This is the policy issue for Sinn Féin with the highest levels of political complexity in relation to its own base. It is imperative for Ireland, not just in terms of catching up on commitments, but on grasping the opportunities of a decarbonised economy. An Opposition party without clear commitments on climate falls far short of being an alternative government.

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The EPA report was stark. Depending on how we do in the meantime we will overrun our carbon budgets in this decade by between about a quarter and a third. But before we come to issues of principle, there are practical ones to consider.

Intensive criticism of Government on climate, without game-changing commitments of its own, is tactically savvy

In 2022, 10 corporate groups accounted for three-fifths of all corporation tax receipts. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council estimates that just three companies accounted for about a third of all corporation tax revenues from 2017 to 2021. In this economy, which has some of the features of a casino, this matters for climate policy. Multinationals are demanding decarbonisation, quickly. There is a real issue about our competitiveness for future projects. That screw is going to turn as this decade goes on. Ireland has delivered significantly on green electricity, but the pressure is only ramping up. A Government lagging on delivery is bad enough. An alternative government lagging in leadership is not the answer.

On electricity specifically, Sinn Féin sponsoring legislation drafted by Brian Stanley that would almost completely ban wind farms — and then disappearing it — didn’t inspire confidence.

Missing climate targets, Census talking points, and Helen McEntee returns

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Matt Carthy, now a Sinn Féin TD but formerly an MEP, has made a mini-industry out of undermining successive iterations of the North-South Interconnector except the one on offer. Ironically it is the only North-South “institution” of which the DUP is in favour and it is a game-changer for renewable energy across the island of Ireland, within that successful institution called the Single Electricity Market.

How a converging coalition of carbon laggards works was seen clearly in the European Parliament. Sinn Féin and Fine Gael MEPs voted together to undermine the Nature Restoration Law. Rewetting has become flooding and the fact that national objectives mean it must be done regardless is ignored. So too is the view that a version of the law, effectively agreed by the EU Council, would allow all that is required to be delivered to be done on State lands. Two of the big three parties are now committed to fake news and toxic politics.

Every year we leave behind ever more to do, we double down of the burden we pile up on fewer, unhoused and under-pensioned workers who must carry the lot over the line

Decarbonisation is an opportunity as well as a necessity. Multinationals will back projects with a view to their stock price and ratings in money markets based on their delivery on decarbonisation. Ireland is joined at the hip with them on this. More profoundly, on the issue of fairness, climate justice is generational justice. Every year we leave behind ever more to do, we double down on the burden we pile up on fewer, unhoused and under-pensioned workers who must carry the lot over the line. Our median age as a population is now 38 years old compared with 31 in 2000. The clock is not our friend.

The politics of decarbonisation is led now by frenzied competition between Sinn Féin and Fine Gael for a rural vote. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is broadly supportive of Government policy and those who don’t agree with him in Fianna Fáil don’t matter. There is a convenient but false equivalence between the Green Party and Green policies. But Green policy is binding under Irish and EU law; delay makes the inevitable more difficult and costly. It puts future opportunity out of reach. It leaves Sinn Féin on the wrong side of history and collaborating with Fine Gael.