Only the Greens can deliver on climate action

Only the Green Party can be trusted to deliver on climate action, the Green Party leadership told the media at an event in Temple Bar, Dublin today (November 14). The event was a discussion of climate policy, focused on the progress over the life of the Government and what the Greens plan to do if returned to Government.

Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman said;

“The Green Party had a clear mission for going into Government, and that was to protect our climate and nature. You will hear a lot of parties talking a big game on climate, but there’s only one party with proven experience delivering on climate. There’s no party that champions the climate like the Greens, no party delivers like the Greens.

“In government, we fought some of our toughest battles to agree the Climate and Nature Fund - a €3 billion investment tool all about securing our future. Today we promise to use that fund to help protect our people in the coming years from the worst of a changing climate. We will use €1.2bn for a massively expanded home retrofit programme, €200m to help businesses with their energy efficiency, €250m to support the rollout of district heating and €100m for new infrastructure to support offshore wind and microgeneration.

“These are the commitments we bring to the electorate and we say - trust us to deliver them. As only the Greens will deliver them.”

Malcolm Noonan, Minister for Nature, said;

“Anyone can talk about the environment, but only the Green Party has the record of delivering for it. The budget for nature protection, national parks and wildlife crime prevention was €28m when we entered Government. Now, it’s €78m. We also created a Climate and Nature Fund and are committed to spending €50m on new national parks, €100m on nature in towns and cities, €150m on restoration on public land, €150m on free-flowing rivers and at least €200m on farmers and landowners for action on private land.

"The Greens will support the farmers, foresters, fishers, the ecologists and the enthusiasts to work together in partnership, field by field, site by site, nest by nest, to restore nature and improve the health of our rivers and lakes.”

Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, said;

“Everyone wants to help the environment, but people are also worried about rising costs. That’s why we are always focused on ways we can protect the planet while protecting people’s pocket at the same time.

This is why we cut public transport fares by 20% for adults and 60% for young people - and made fares free for Under 9s. Now we want to go further by introducing a ‘Climate Ticket’ that will bring down the cost of an annual public transport ticket by approximately a third.

We abolished VAT on solar panels saving households €1,000 and are now seeing 700 homes a week take this up. We want to go even further and make it free for 200,000 low-income households to install solar panels.

And we say to voters - that’s what you get if you go Green. We said this throughout this campaign and it bears repeating - the Greens are the best value vote out there.”

Brian Leddin TD, Green Party Spokesperson on Climate said;

“The Green Party is focused on taking big steps to reduce emissions and we are already seeing the results. We’ve seen a solar revolution in Ireland in the last few years, thousands of homes are now powered with their own solar cells that the Green Party has provided the supports to deliver.

“We’ve been the champions of wind in this Government and we have greatly expanded onshore wind and are building the necessary foundations for offshore to take off. Our VAT reduction on heat pumps has ensured even greater take up into the future. We have delivered a lot so far and we are ready to go further.”

Hazel Chu, Green Party candidate in Dublin Bay South, said;

“Climate is a concern that comes up on the doors every single day. And that’s why today I’d like to reiterate our call for a live televised debate on RTE focused on climate issues, or indeed on Virgin Media.

“We are lucky in Ireland that our media do a really fantastic job for the Irish public providing critical information and context on how, before our eyes, our climate is changing and the devastating effects that come with that, at home and around the world – from Midleton to Valencia. 

“My message to voters is really clear - trust us again to deliver on climate and to give nature a fighting chance. Only the Greens will prioritise this - and we need your number one vote to ensure we continue to deliver. “