An Taisce Manifesto asks on the Climate and Ecological Crisis

We outline below our priority areas to be included in any Party Manifesto concerned with the Environmental and Ecological crisis facing all beings.

They are predicated on:

• The call from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6 2021) - ‘unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach;’
• An understanding of planetary boundaries and the imminence of tipping points in earth systems;
• Evidence that the drive for infinite economic growth has run up against the limits of our finite planet
• A pressing need for policies that meaningfully address both supply-side and demand-side reduction of high-emissions activities and products
• The patent failure of incrementalism;
• The obvious inability of current policy and decision-making, at both national and global levels, to make the required changes in the time available;
• The need for courageous, outspoken voices calling for greater ambition and radical action;
• The Programme for Government (2025-30) may be the last opportunity for civil society to influence dramatic policy shifts before irreversible climate and nature breakdown occurs.

Overarching Manifesto Asks

Your party supported the passage of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 with its requirements that Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced to comply with the two five-year carbon budgets subsequently approved by the Dail and Seanad. For the periods 2021-25 and 2026-2030, these were agreed at 295 and 200 Mt respectively. 

Will you commit in your manifesto to take all necessary steps to comply with these legally binding obligations and to observe the requirements of the Act?

Emission ceilings for several sectors have been signed off on by the present government as a mechanism for meeting the national carbon budgets. Measures to facilitate compliance by individual sectors, and to meet Ireland’s EU obligations, are indicated below in this document.

Will you commit in your manifesto to take all necessary steps to comply with these sectoral emission ceilings by taking corrective action where overshoot projections by the EPA are indicated? 

The following are our specific ask which we urge you to commit to:

Energy

Retrofit Programme

• Prioritise retrofitting for low-income families and social housing with low-carbon materials
• Incentivise private landlords to retrofit rental homes

Data Centres

• Urgently conduct an independent national review of current and projected data centre energy demand, focussing on compliance with the legally binding constraints of the carbon budgets

 Gas Grids

• Commit to no further connections to the gas grid for industrial development or large energy users

Community Engagement and Resilience Development

• Actively promote and support Community-led Resilience Plans
• Extend and Stabilise Climate Team Contracts in Local Authorities (CoCo’s)
• Initiate a well-funded information and media campaign - as in COVID
• Improve Accessibility and Flexibility of the Community Climate Action Fund
• Recognise and Expand Evidence-Based Behavioural Change Campaigns for Climate Action grounded in rigorous behavioural science
• Initiate a well-funded, evidence-based information campaign aimed at building public support for transformative policies and actions by communicating a positive vision for the future that emphasises the co-benefits of climate action for public health and wellbeing, social justice, and long-term economic sustainability.
• Commit to rethinking growth as the primary goal of the Irish economy, and initiate a transition to a Wellbeing Economy, the goal of the which is to enable citizens and communities to thrive while safeguarding and restoring our living planet for generations to come.
• Engage in discussion to transition to a Wellbeing Economy, to enable a truly sustainable Circular Economy

Nature Restoration

• Commit to Develop a National Restoration Plan
• Establish an expert working group, including environmental organisations, to design and monitor the implementation of the plan
• Ensure the proper funding of Ireland’s National Nature Restoration Plan through:  
  • The creation of a National Nature Restoration Fund, to finance current and capital funding   
  • Championing the establishment of an EU Nature Restoration Fund  
  • Ringfencing funding for nature in the Infrastructure Climate and Nature Fund from the private sector through a hypothecation of a minimum of 0.5% in Corporation Tax revenue 
  • Reviewing the effectiveness of biodiversity expenditure through CAP, EMFAF and the Forestry Programme to inform better future investment
• Implement the Citizen’s Assembly Biodiversity recommendations
• Support the Nature Restoration Law at EU level and enshrine the rights of nature to provide for a more diverse and resilient natural world supporting all beings

Nitrates

• Commit that Nitrate derogations should only be granted where it can be demonstrated that they will not impact on water quality

Agriculture 

• Provide additional support to the tillage and horticulture sector and create funding for those in the farming community to transition from dairy and beef to tillage and other sustainable farming options
• Fund farmers for nature restoration and rewilding.
• Set production quota limits on total milk and meat production nationally, in line with climate action consistent with the Paris Agreement and in line with ecological limits
• Commit to publicly support the UN and WHO recommendations that eating less meat is essential to achieving climate mitigation as well as health objectives

Biomethane/Anaerobic Digestion

• Revise the National Biomethane Strategy to include an assessment of the scientific evidence regarding the potentially serious climate and environmental impacts of methane leakage, fertiliser use required to produce crops for anaerobic digestion and the ammonia emissions resulting from the landspreading of the by-products of anaerobic digestion

Forestry

• Immediately define Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectoral emissions ceilings
• Set Limit on timber harvest in your climate mitigation policy
• Amend the legal mandates conferred on Coillte by the Forestry Act 1988 and Bord na Móna by the Turf Development Acts 1946-1998, ensuring that the protection and restoration of the environment and climate action are core obligations; and place the government's commitment to retain public land in public ownership on a legal footing

Transport 

• Commit (i) to allocating 20% of transport capital funding for walking and cycling, and (ii) to a 5:1 ratio of funding for public transport infrastructure compared to new road construction
• Accelerate the delivery of
  • high quality metropolitan and town cycle networks as per the NTA's CycleConnects plan, plus TII's National Cycle Network routes
  • transformative public transport projects
• To reduce the climate impact of aviation and provide viable alternative international travel options, support the development and improvement of high-speed, low-carbon passenger ferry routes to the UK and the continent. Also ensure seamless connectivity between rail links and other public transport services with ferry ports with the goal of making sail-and-rail a much easier, smoother and more affordable transport journey

An Taisce Climate Committee — 9th October 2024