On Friday, Minister of Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, claimed that the Climate Act has been weaponised and the Government will draft new emergency legislation that would enable it to bypass approval and planning requirements. This follows a series of new laws, including the Critical Infrastructure Act, that have already weakened climate protections.
Environmentalists in Europe have expressed concerns that the Irish government will use its EU Presidency to advocate for the farming lobby and weaken EU proposals and rules that protect biodiversity, water and soil.
Paul Murphy said the government is accelerating its bonfire of Ireland’s climate protections and is seeking to spread its anti-environment policies across Europe through its EU Presidency.
Paul Murphy said:
“This government has an appalling record on climate action and environmental protections. It has effectively abandoned national greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals. It has extended the nitrates derogation. It is considering the introduction of unscientific accounting tricks to make methane emissions look lower than they are. The new Critical Infrastructure Act removes the need to ensure key developments meet climate obligations.
“But it seems that’s not enough damage done to climate and environment protections. Now Minister Jack Chambers has claimed that the Climate Act has been weaponised, and the Minister indicated that the government will bring forward new legislation to bypass even more planning and other approval requirements.
“Just as France and Spain are experiencing climate change driven wildfires that Emmanuel Macron has described as France’s most difficult situation since World War 2, there are widespread fears across Europe that the Irish government will use its EU Presidency to spread its dangerous anti-environment policy agenda across the EU.
“The government has said that ‘simplification’ of regulations is one of its top three priorities for its EU Presidency. But in reality, the ‘simplification’ label is designed to hide a huge push to weaken and remove EU climate and environmental protections.
“Environmentalists in Europe fear the Irish EU Presidency because they know the Irish government’s environment and climate agenda is heavily influenced by the likes of the IFA and agri-food corporations.
“For example, in May, a letter signed by over 40 scientists from 10 countries warned Ireland against adopting a new and unscientific method for calculating methane emissions, known as Global Warming Potential Star (GWP*) as a metric. The scientists said this new approach would allow major methane emitters to continue producing large quantities of greenhouse gases while claiming climate neutrality. However, there is widespread fear among European environmentalists that the Irish EU Presidency, at the behest of the IFA, will ignore the scientific evidence and will attempt to get the EU to adopt GWP*. That would be a climate travesty.
“European environmentalists also fear that the Irish government will use the EU Presidency to prevent European efforts to make payment of farm subsidies conditional on meeting climate and environment goals and will use the ‘simplification’ agenda to extend and introduce a plethora of exemptions that would undermine existing EU laws that protect biodiversity, water and soil.
“The Irish government is planning to throw more petrol on its bonfire of our climate and environment protections and has its sights set on weakening EU protections. Behind the benign ‘EU values’ rhetoric, this is the reality of the Irish EU Presidency.”