Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell has urged the government to use its positions on the UN Security Council and within the EU to advocate for greater action.
"We simply do not have any more time to postpone or defer the radical decision-making we need on a global level to avoid disaster," the Dublin Fingal TD said. "I believe that Ireland, having passed ambitious legislation to tackle emissions in the form of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill, combined with our role in the European Union and our seat on the UN Security Council, has the opportunity to speak for hundreds of millions of people around the world. We should not, and cannot, afford to let this moment pass us.
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"The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) details the increase in wildfires, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events that we will continue to see. It also highlights that many of the climate change impacts we feel today will be irreversible for centuries or even millennia.
"While these are frightening prospects, we must also recognise that by taking decisive global action now, we can avoid some of the very worst scenarios and save lives. The world must make profound cuts to emissions, and while this will not be easy, over the past 18 months we've seen unprecedented levels of action taken to address the Covid-19 pandemic on an international level. We must now harness this attitude and urgency to act on climate change.
"Make no mistake – this will affect every nation, big and small, regardless of geography, demographics or economic status. I believe that we can still do the right thing and save our children and grandchildren from this spectre and instead leave a more hopeful legacy as the generation that finally, at long last, rose to the urgency of climate change."
