With just a week to go to the opening of a UN climate-change summit in Montreal, more than one-third of TDs have signed a Friends of the Earth "climate pledge" promising that Ireland will do its share to prevent global warming.
The pledge states that Ireland will have to cut its carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions by 60 per cent before 2050, and make a start now to move towards a low-carbon society and economy "to avoid upheaval and crisis in the future".
With just a week to go to the opening of a UN climate-change summit in Montreal, more than one-third of TDs have signed a Friends of the Earth "climate pledge" promising that Ireland will do its share to prevent global warming. The pledge states that Ireland will have to cut its carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions by 60 per cent before 2050, and make a start now to move towards a low-carbon society and economy "to avoid upheaval and crisis in the future".
With current CO2 emissions running at 25 per cent above 1990 levels, this would require a 2 per cent reduction in emissions year-on-year from now until 2050, according to Oisín Coghlan, Friends of the Earth director in Ireland.
"If we are to meet our targets, we will need to do much more to move away from fossil fuels like oil, coal and peat, and towards renewables like wind, solar and biomass. And we all need to use energy much more carefully and efficiently."
Mr Coghlan welcomed the support from TDs, saying it showed they were "waking up to the threat posed by climate change - not just to our sustained prosperity at home but to the poorest communities around the world who will be first and hardest hit".
He said the talks in Montreal would be an opportunity to build a public and political consensus on the urgency of tackling climate change, and "an ideal time for the remaining two-thirds of TDs to demonstrate their commitment to Ireland doing its fair share".
Among the TDs who have signed up are Seán Haughey, chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment; Ivor Callely, Minister of State for Transport; Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and all 21 Labour TDs.
