The Minister for Finance has remained tight-lipped over whether the forthcoming Budget will introduce any fresh measures to tackle climate change.
While Paschal Donohoe offered no hint of what October’s Budget might contain, he stressed that the issue of climate change will be “central” to all discussions and deliberations.
Speaking at Government Buildings on Tuesday, he acknowledged the scale of the challenge facing Ireland and the world over the coming years as countries seek to reduce the impact of global warming.
A landmark report on the catastrophic impact of global warming, published by the UN on Monday, said the world will reach or exceed temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius – a limit countries have pledged to try to keep to in order to avoid the most dangerous consequences of climate change – over the next two decades.
The UN report warned that temperature rises will continue until mid-century – and that without fast, deep reductions in greenhouse gases they will, over the course of the 21st century, exceed both the 1.5 and 2 degrees limits set by countries in the Paris climate treaty.
The Republic recently passed a Climate Act, which commits the Government to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to cutting emissions by 50 per cent in the next nine years.
The Government will also publish a Climate Action Plan, setting out how it will reach the targets.
Mr Donohoe said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report “reminded us of the threat to our civilisation”.
The Government has committed to increasing carbon tax to €100 per tonne by 2030 – in last October’s Budget it rose to €33.50.
Mr Donohoe said he remains “committed” to that 2030 target.
Earlier on Tuesday, former president Mary Robinson said that, while Ireland was no longer a “laggard” on climate change policy, the Government needs to set out its “actual plan” to tackle climate change.
“Ireland has gone from being a laggard,” she said. “But now we need to see the actual plan, the steps, and that does need not just the Government’s leadership but Government and opposition leadership.”
