A report last week made a stark forecast: Ireland will be subject to EU fines and costs ranging from from €8 billion to €26 billion for failing to meet its 2030 climate goals.
So why are we not taking more action, more swiftly, to avoid this fiscal calamity - or indeed to avoid the underlying catastrophe of climate change?
One reason could be a belief that the fines will not be applied in full, says former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan on today’s Inside Politics podcast.
“I think some civil servants and others may have in the back of their mind said, these these targets are so challenging and we won’t be the only country not to miss them.
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“In fact, some of the bigger countries, Germany, France, Italy, they’re not going to meet their targets and therefore, we’ll just hold back and we’ll hope that in the end of the day, the big countries say ‘this is too expensive”, the former Minister for Environment and Climate tells Hugh Linehan.
“I think that would be a fundamental mistake. I think it would be a miscalculation by the Irish civil service if we did that or the government, because in truth, I think what’s happening for security reasons, as well as economic reasons, particularly in Europe. Europe will never be competitive by burning other people’s fossil fuels.
On the podcast Hugh Linehan also talks to Hannah Daly, Professor of Sustainable Energy at University College Cork. Listen at the links above or wherever you get your podcasts.
