Pandemic lessons can help in the fight against climate change

With Covid-19 hospitalization trends improving every day and the vaccination program continuing rapidly, it certainly feels like the country is heading towards a more stable situation.

Nothing escaped the pandemic of course. His influence on the way we conduct our activities will be with us for a long time.

For the past 15 and a half months we have shown that, as a society, “when it pushes to push” we can embrace big change and move on to big challenges. We have demonstrated perseverance, determination and solidarity and compassion.

We will need all of those attributes, and more, as we begin our next challenge as outlined in the Climate Bill passed by Dáil late Wednesday night.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Action Bill (Change) 2021 is no different from any bill that came before it.

When he passes by Seanad, who will be soon and then signed into law by the President, he will put on the train what can only be described as a 30-year revolution in the way we do our business. daily.

It will make it a legal requirement for us to halve our greenhouse emissions by 2030. That is only nine years away.

Then, for the next 20 years, we will have to completely eliminate our net emissions.

This means if we are still emitting any greenhouse gases by 2050 – whether they come from industry or a cow – we will be legally obliged to compensate by removing an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere .

There is a famous quote that is often used to describe what faith is. He says that “trust is only about taking the first step even when you can not see the whole scale”. There has never been a more fitting description of the climate action we are starting now.

What we are asked to do in this Draft Climate Law is to “believe”. It is a call to stand behind national climate efforts, to prepare to embrace major change in our homes, our jobs, and every aspect of the way we live our lives. However, the technology to do most of the things required to completely eliminate net carbon emissions has not yet been invented.

We unfortunately failed to achieve our greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2020.

Yes of course, electric cars, remodeling homes, improving insulation, more efficient equipment, generating clean electricity from wind and sun, cycling to work instead of driving, more public transportation and all those kinds of things are major innovations. They can all help to give us a really good start. They represent those first steps in that degree of faith and are steps we must take both morally and ethically.

But this will only bring us a little out of the way during our climate action.

What happens then? How can we build homes and office blocks, factories and roads without concrete and steel, two of the biggest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions? Where is the technology that can extract carbon directly from the atmosphere in large quantities and keep it safe forever? How do we replace the heavy dirty oil that powers the big ships that transport most of our goods to every corner of the world? How do you fly airplanes that carry hundreds of high-octane aviation fuel-free people polluting the atmosphere – you will certainly not be able to do it with batteries because they weigh too much to fly.

And what about meat and milk? Should we abandon it altogether? What would happen to our farming communities if we did? And I have not even mentioned the sacred grail of safe energy from nuclear fusion. When, if ever, will this become a reality?

There are still no adequate answers to these questions. These are like steps we can not see that are beyond the degrees of climate action we are about to climb. There is no guarantee that those steps will be in place when we get to the point where we desperately need them. We will just have to hope they will be there.

This week, Climate Minister Eamon Ryan said don’t worry, trust me. The climate action bill will provide a better future for young people, will provide more investment, more jobs and better jobs, farmers will be in better shape, the air will be cleaner, biodiversity will be improved. We will help protect ourselves from the damages like floods and storms that climate change will bring. He is right of course, though he may sound like a preacher, and Ireland has so much ground to make up for in the fight against climate change.

The seriousness and urgency of the need for climate action was highlighted on Friday when scientists at NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published new research showing that the earth is now blocking twice as much heat in the atmosphere than it was only 15 years ago.

They described their findings as alarming and said they were the result of greenhouse gas emissions and more water vapor, as well as reduced clouds and sea ice.

Ireland needs to take action to meet our climate commitments and can not delay any longer. We have been the worst stagnation in climate action in the European Union over the last 20 years. We unfortunately failed to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets by 2020. It has already cost us over € 200 million to pay for carbon loans and other compensation to make up for our failure.

What a waste of little taxpayer money.

Obliging to reduce carbon emissions by 51% in the next nine years by law is a daunting challenge. It will require ingenuity, determination, perseverance, solidarity and compassion.

We will need buckets of resilience in the face of demands for ongoing change. We will probably have to work on our resilience, but the way we have handled the Covid-19 pandemic so far suggests that we have many of those qualities. We will definitely need them.