At a Time of Climate Crisis: Election 2024: Will parties stand firm on the climate law?

Political parties must indicate how they will uphold and strengthen our carbon budgets amid this climate crisis

This month’s column for the Irish Times MaREI researcher Dr Hannah Daly at ERI, University College Cork writes Election 2024: Will parties stand firm on the climate law?

As we approach a general election, voters and journalists should press political parties on two essential climate questions: Will they uphold and champion Ireland’s climate law? And what policies will they implement to deliver the immediate, deep and sustained emissions cuts necessary to achieve the carbon budgets adopted under that law?

Carbon budgets, which place limits on polluting greenhouse gas emissions, were adopted in the Dáil on a cross-party basis without a vote in 2022. Even so, their ongoing political support cannot be taken for granted. While carbon budgets are “legally binding” in name, a future government could sidestep climate commitments and repeal or amend the climate law.

Read the full article here.

Dr Hannah Daly also contributed to a Leaders’ Debate on the Climate & Biodiversity Emergency Webinar with Prof. Barry McMullin from Dublin City University on Zoom on the 5th of November. You can watch it back here.