Ireland has become the world's second country to declare a climate emergency on in response to intensifying ecological threats across the world, according to RTE.
The nation followed the lead of the UK, that was pressured to declare a climate emergency by the protest movement “Extinction Rebellion” which seeks to take radical action to halt climate change and the decline of biodiversity. However, Irish politicians said that the new measure would be meaningless without concrete steps.
“Declaring an emergency means absolutely nothing unless there is action to back it up,” said Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Green Party. “That means the government having to do things they don’t want to do.”
Ryan sponsored the declaration and accepted by all ruling parties without a vote, suggesting that there’ll be broad support for climate action in the future.
Though the country has made bold climate declarations in the past, such as saying that it would phase out fossil fuels, the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said Ireland is “way off track” in achieving the targets it set under the Paris climate agreement.
Great news from Ireland!! Who is next?
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 9, 2019
And remember: #ClimateEmergency means leaving fossil fuels in the ground. #ClimateBreakdown #EcologicalBreakdown https://t.co/GTkyhg7Sam
The Paris climate agreement is a voluntary framework organized by the United Nations through which countries commit to take action on climate change. Under that arrangement, countries have submitted plans for phasing out greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing sustainable economies.
According to CAN, Ireland’s plan “does not demonstrate high ambition on energy savings and renewable energy, indicating a lack of focus in their actions for the next decade.”
Ireland’s new declaration of a climate emergency might prompt leaders to take the actions that are necessary to get back on track.
Greta Thunberg, the youth climate activist that spurred the European Union to announce stronger climate plans and the United Nations to convene an emergency climate summit, and sparked a global protest movement, commended Ireland on its latest announcement.
The UN has recently released a series of reports documenting the scale of the ecological crisis facing Earth.
At the end of 2018, the organization’s environmental arm said that “rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” have to be undertaken to avoid ecological catastrophe.
And on May 6th, 2019, the United Nations released a groundbreaking report on biodiversity that stated that up to one million species could go extinct due to human activity.
The threats documented in those reports are urgent. As the organizers of the Extinction Rebellion understand, realizing the severity of the crisis is the first step toward preventing it.
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