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LAST UPDATE | 20 Sep 2023
ENVIRONMENT MINISTER EAMON RYAN has said the UK risks “serious reputational damage” over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s watering down of climate actions.
The UK is set to soften policies aimed at achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and instead pursue a “pragmatic” approach to hitting the target, Sunak said this afternoon.
“We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero,” Sunak told a news conference, saying a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars would be pushed back from 2030 to 2035.
That would bring it in line with countries such as France and Germany, he said.
Sunak also announced an easing of energy efficiency targets for rental properties and backtracked on plans to make homeowners replace gas boilers with heat pumps.
In Ireland the sale of new petrol or diesel cars is due to be banned in 2030.
Speaking to reporters in New York at the United Nations Building, where one climate change is one of the key topics of discussion this week, Ryan said he would “worry for the British people”.
The UK has one of the proudest records in climate diplomacy and climate action, he said, adding that they’ve significantly reduced their emissions in the last 10 to 15 years.
“It is worrying, I would worry for the British people, the British government and people if they leave that track. Now they’re starting to be seen as a country which is not leading in climate, that’s not good for their people, it’s not good for their economy, it’s not good for their reputation. There are real risks,” he added.
“I think the British people actually don’t want to take that action,” said the minister, stating that it is time to be ambitious and bold.
“It’s not time to retreat and go back to a fossil fuel approach… we have to move on from the use of those fuels. And I think the British government, if it doesn’t keep up its proud records, it risks really serious reputational, as well as economic damage,” he said.
When asked if he thought Sunak’s non-attendance at the UN General Assembly this week was a snub, Ryan said:
“The room I was in, President Macron was there, Chancellor Schultz was there, Ursula von der Leyen was there, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was there. If I was Rishi Sunak I’d be here too,” concluded the minister.
Stressing that “no one can doubt” the reality of climate change, Sunak said he was a firm believer both in net zero and the UK’s ability to achieve it.
But he added that “too often motivated by short-term thinking, politicians have taken the easy way out, telling people the bits they want to hear, and not necessarily always the bits they need to hear.
“We haven’t had an honest conversation about these issues in a long time. It’s not enough to just announce these targets – great headlines in the short term – to will this thing to happen. That’s not right,” he said.
The prime minister said in his speech that the UK is “so far ahead of every other country in the world” on tackling climate change.
He added: “How can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others? Because the risk here for those of us who care about reaching net zero, as I do, is simple.
“If we continue down this path, we risk losing the consent of the British people.”
Sunak continued: “That’s why we have to do things differently. We need sensible green leadership.
“It won’t be easy and it will require a wholly new kind of politics. A politics that is transparent and the space for a better, more honest debate about how we secure the country’s long-term interests.”
Sunak’s announcement comes on the same day world leaders have gathered for discussions on preventing future pandemics and tackling the climate crisis at the UN General Assembly in New York and Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit.
Critics have condemned Sunak for his absence at the summit, warning that the UK is throwing away its reputation as a world leader on climate change.
Sunak’s speech also overshadowed Environment Secretary Therese Coffey’s announcement that the UK would sign the UN Ocean Treaty in New York.
Lissa Batey, head of marine conservation at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “It is shocking that the UK Government appears happy to sign up to international agreements one minute, and completely undermine them the next.
“While we welcome the signing of the UN High Seas Treaty – which is crucial to achieve the UK’s pledge to protect 30% of seas by 2030 – we are concerned that today’s climate announcements put this commitment at risk.
“Despite signing the treaty, the UK risks being left adrift if we delay or weaken ambitions to meet existing net-zero targets. The UK Government must stay on course and live up to its commitments.”
Shaun Spiers, executive director at Green Alliance, said: “Global leaders are meeting for a climate ambition summit at the United Nations today – and Rishi Sunak’s not on the list.
“Our legally binding commitment to reach net zero by 2050 ought to have earned us a place with the “early movers” showing the world how it’s done today.”
Spiers said the UK has not “matched ambition with concrete action”.
“The Prime Minister claims Britain is leading the world on climate change,” he said.
“The truth is that, by sacrificing climate policies for short-term political gains, we’re throwing away hard-won progress on the climate and with it our international reputation on this issue.”
With reporting by Political Correspondent Christina Finn in New York
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We should also water down our climate pledges. The more water the better.
@Four Aces: I think he’s being very responsible, not unnecessarily upgrading police vehicles ;)
@Willie Murphy: damn… they spotted their “Patrol cars” typo…
@Willie Murphy: surely at this stage shouldn’t the vast majority of petrol cars now at least be mild hybrids? Its pretty much the addition of a second alternator.
Obviously Mr Sunak is a realist and that’s a quality sadly lacking across the political spectrum today.
If politics was rescued from the ideologues driving the agenda currently the world would be a calmer and more rational place.
@Tommy Haze: try not to use words you can’t spell
@lWOk0fWf: Tommy is right. What have future generations ever done for us.
@Tommy Haze: Well said. 100% agree.
@Fred Coloe: who could argue against truss, Johnson, Sunak
@lWOk0fWf: try not being d i c
@lWOk0fWf: big c u n t aren’t you boy
@lWOk0fWf: That’s a really snide comment. Play the ball, not the man.
Climate change is real, but some of the climate change targets are not.
We all need to do better but the cost of achievement of their targets simply is not affordable for a lot of people.
Mr Sunack is bowing to reality.
@P.J. Nolan: the cost of failure is not affordable for anyone.
@Shane O’Connor:
Depends on how you quantify failure.
If excessive cost of green policies leads to the election of candidates like Trump, Bolsanaro etc what cost that failure?
Green policies are needed, but the €€€ have to work too
@P.J. Nolan: Yup, 2 steps forward 10 steps back unfortunately. A sort of opus dea approach
And so the wind down on climate change begins, I wonder what the next fear agenda will be.
@ian flynn: Another round of covid probably. Can’t bate the oul reliables.
If we considered America, Brazil, china, parts of Africa, etc.. are not doing their bit for climate burning planet crisis then our efforts are failure no matter how much carbon taxes we have been rocked to pay, yet nobody getting a free solar panel or battery in Ireland. It makes no difference to what farmers do, pollution will always be a fact of life in nature, smoke will always go up, but beating the drum on fossil fuels in Ireland is an injustice to the people of Ireland because the whole world does not follow the mantra of Europe currently now no turf availability exists.
I hear the notion from the Green Party that they look forward to been able to drink fresh water from the streams and rivers. Fair play to them because wild dear, rabbit, mice, rats etc all drink out of these rivers and stream, they even release their baby waste beside the river and stream which seeps into the river.
Rocks in river and stream , along the river bank release nitrates, sulphates and phosphates into the water running by.
England perhaps have now understood it’s a world sign up solution and not just their problem. In Ireland we’re been fleeced by carbon extortionate taxes considering we paid since 2010 and nobody got a free solar panel or battery.
@Liam Foy: well we’re not really being fleeced by extortionate carbon taxes, they amount to 450e per person per year or something like that on average. That’s not the reason people are struggling, I’d put it down to high rent, insurance, etc.
@Liam Foy: also where I live is mostly council tenants and many have had insulation put on their houses to improve their energy ratings for free in recent years. my next door neighbours had a whole heat pump setup and insulation installed as one of them qualifies for fuel allowance. carbon taxes pay for these initiatives so people are getting things for free!
@eoin fitzpatrick: If taxes are paying for it, it’s not free. It means other people are paying for it.
@Dave Callaghan: well I’m delighted my taxes are helping those who are most in need
@eoin fitzpatrick: your another Green supporter who thinks the Green taxes are “Paltry” as another commentator called them….such taxes are only paltry when they can be afforded and the problem is, no one can. Many families in this country do not have 2 cent to rub together and what do the Greens do? Introduce new taxes in the middle of a cost of living crisis and force the other two parties to go back on promises of keeping VAT and excise duty cuts for as long as they are needed.
Come the next election, there will be a reckoning, and thankfully the majority of voters in the country know who the problem is. Only this time I hope the complete Green party is voted out so that someone with a bit of compassion and basic cop on will be able to take up the enviromental cause properly, because the crowd there at the moment have done more damage to the environmental movements than any oil company could ever hope to by the way they have turned people against it!
@eoin fitzpatrick: you missed the conclusion because the biased mantra of green in Ireland towards its citizens is “we as a government will not give any free solar panel or battery to any person not getting the fuel allowance”. You made my point , it’s an all in collective effort so everyone should have the system of one solar panel and battery installed free from the millions of euros people pay in carbon taxes each year. If they want extra panels they can spend the few hundreds of euros extra not thousand under the grant scheme few can afford.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Ireland’s regressive taxes from the ‘Greems’ and their transfer of working people’s taxes to rich property owners makes their agenda clear.
Right wing pro-corporate Greenwashing.
@eoin fitzpatrick: the people who are getting it for nothing are the people who get everything free they know how to work the system
Don’t worry, Irish saps paying €2 for diesel will save the planet!
Meanwhile the GINOs (Green in Name Only) continue to fly business class all over the world.
@Paul: I don’t really get the business class jibe. And I hate the Green Party. But if they are on a commercial flight what difference is it if they are in business class or economy?
@Journal Commenter: Business class has less seats per M2 than economy.
@Journal Commenter: “Passengers seated in business class are responsible for 2.6 to 4.3 times more emissions than if they fly in coach,” But that’s okay, because Greens are simply better than us, so rules they expect us to live by obviously shouldn’t apply to them, our betters.
@Journal Commenter: I think it’s more a case how they keep telling people we should be using more public transport as it moves more people for a given amount of energy. When it comes to aircraft for each set of business class seats you would probably fit 2 rows of economy fare seats which means that you would carry 6 passengers economy class instead if the 1 or 2 business class, depending on the lay out, for the same amount of fuel
He will be delaying it again because electric vehicles are not good and can’t work they are a failure and more harmful to the planet than internal combustion vehicles, green diesel all the way
@: And thats in a marketplace that flourishes in terms of prices, quality, tax and infrastructure.
Be some mess if all the tractors at the ploughing championships were electric, extension leads all over the place trying to charge them and muck everywhere
You really shouldn’t talk about something you obviously no nothing about.
Almost all tractors at the ploughing are either stationary on the trade stands or are moving for no more than a couple of hours in competition
Why would you need to charge them?
@P.J. Nolan: what the fcuk are you on about
Battery tractors exist.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: Same for trucks, busses and all commercial vehicles. Do we have a plan for them here? no. Can we afford them? no Can we implement policy to change the pattern of industry? no. Can we force taxpayers into uncompromising situations? yea.
Roll on the next election and we will be rid of Ryan.
He has done more damage to the environmental movement than anyone
Ryan says “ I would worry for the British people “ what’s going to happen Britain is not going to implode and Ireland be spared. I looked at a video the other day of of a rubbish truck in Peru tipping out rubbish into a River and I remembered a few weeks ago we got a letter from our waste company announcing an increase in recycling. You’d wonder why on earth do we bother doing so good when other countries don’t care after all we are just a small island off out in the Atlantic but yet Ryan is probably dreaming up more taxes to stiff us with. Our country realistically isn’t suitable for fully electric transport not when that electricity is being produced by diesel generators. Cop On Minister Ryan
Why should countries like the UK and Ireland be taxed to their eyeballs when we account for less then one percent of the worlds population . Upcoming developed countries like China and India that have over a billion people each have no intentions of risking their countries development . Who can blame them . We as developed prosperous countries telling other countries that you can’t become a developed country like us because of global warming . China and India are going to give the world two fingers .
Doctor: You have lung cancer. Patient: Oh I definitely quit smoking in the next 10 years. You sure will…
@smatrix mantra: first of all, ridiculous comparison…..most people can give up the smokes at the drop of a pin, especially when they get news like that, which I hope no one ever does! When it comes to switching vehicles though, everybody seems to think that it’s just a case of dumping ICEs and buying EV….folks heres is a little problem that neebmds to be dealt with first…..the Infrastructure for EVs.! It is nonexistant. There are not enough charging points to support what is needed. Sure charge at home before you leave…..get halfway along your trip and where you planned to charge up while you had coffee has only 2 working chargers, and there is a que..then go to your backup charging spot and they are off line!
Don’t think it can happen? One the guys I work with found out the hard way….he is getting rid of his Leaf because it has happened to him twice in the last 6 months!
First, you can’t damage an already bad reputation. Imagine telling Rudy Guliani he should be concerned about wearing Nikes, because of Nike sweatshop labour.
Second, Ryan should worry about how his right wing greenwashing has destroyed the Irish environmental movement. He has no reputational standing to criticise anyone about anything.
One time ago in a group of people sharing talk a poor farmer said: my only bag of grain was eaten by a mouse, everyone turned towards him and said ,You are a Liar and boring with your uselessstories. Then a rich man said: My bronz ornament was eaten by a mice. People said Yes True… True, that sad. Same this World we live in.
@Ham Hat: Chatgpt write that up?
Environmental concerns are always worth pursuing as the limits of human influence, however, the misadventure with the Earth science of climate by the modelling community has seen its day.
The recovery for humanity is in genuine solar system and Earth science research. Instead of allowing the present academic community to dictate the pace of recovery, wider society must become mire active and perceptive rather than acting as cheerleaders and cannon fodder for a misadventure.
@Alan B: he right solar is the way forward, every house in Ireland has paid carbon tax since 2010. How many houses have got one free solar panel and battery none.
It’s worked in Denmark because the government put the system in like the ESB did to connect people to the grid. I bet you do not consider this because it’s never discussed on RTE or Virgin Media. Solar generated power for a house reduces carbon emissions. That’s the way forward.
@Gearoid O’Ceilleachair: There is no solar system. Space is fake and g**. Climate change is bollocks.
@Science: Lol! what do I see when I look up at night?
@Thesaltyurchin: You see the sky. Depending on the weather you may also see some clouds, the moon and stars.
@Science: Phew! Thanks Science.
Sensible action
Sweden’s government has come under criticism after unveiling a budget that will dramatically increase emissions.
The budget, unveiled on Wednesday morning, included a 259m krona (£19m) reduction in funding for the climate and environment next year, and tax cuts on petrol and diesel.
It is estimated that emissions will increase by 5.9m–9.8m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents by 2030 as a result of decisions made by the government between 1 July 2022 and 1 July 2023.
Making pledges that they can never fulfil is what the tory Party is all about, I mean look at brexit and all the promises never delivered there, why should climate change be any different to these rotten tory toss-pots
Not that will be allowed to access any of the UK stock. Nope, only high mileage wrecks or over priced electric cars for us. Banana Republic.
Spoofer
Ryan has ran our County into the ground he should be ashamed of himself not sticking his nose into other country’s
Ryan giving advice? Priceless.
The lefty looney green brigade will want us using public transport next.
Sunak Knows that Net Zero is a vote looser and If labour win the election and continue
on with Net Z plus its costs Sunak can then blame labour for those costs Its nothing more that protecting his arse from the fall out of NZ
The Equinox occurs shortly as the North Pole rotates into the dark hemisphere for the next six months. The entire surface rotates as a function of the planet’s orbital motion and creates an expanding circumference where the Sun remains out of view until the December Solstice.
All those of you who express love and concern for the planet, including the Journal, should come to appreciate the motions of the Earth are responsible for planetary climate rather than human action or inaction.
Piss off silly eamon
One of the main reasons why they pushed for Brexit was so they could ignore rules to satiate their greed. This is more of it.
It’s very obvious we live in a country that has so far not seen anything near the worst effects of climate change. Although looking at the reactions of some people in countries that have, I’m not sure anything will change the contrarian mindset. You get the impression some people would prefer to be stood in the middle of a pile of rubble imagining they ‘stuck it to the libs’ than face reality.
It’s obvious the collective will isn’t there to solve this. Social media has turned huge numbers into conspiracy theorists who will take thousand mile detours of whataboutery to avoid arriving at the obvious truth staring them in the face. I wonder will they own their actions when they’re being asked what they did in 30 years?
@SerotoninWars: just because people don’t want electric cars don’t make them conspiracy theorists ,Ireland loves diesel cars can’t beat getting a good drum of green throwing it into the car and away you go no waiting for hours with a big extension lead trying to charge a car and if the power goes off in a storm your in right trouble then
@SerotoninWars: give over lad, theres nobody denying climate change its more the hap hazard approach taken to tackle it. The alternatives arent there and what is there to things like reliance on fossil fuels is expensive and out of reach for many. They wanna ban petrol/diesel cars but we havent improved the electrical grid enough to substain it never mind not even close to enough charging points. Most garages arent even able to work on EV cars cos the dealerships need to work on them so people will pay more for a service, and then lets talk about public transport. Well in Ireland if a person wants to go from Galway to say Mayo by train, they literally have to get one train to athlone and change over to get another to westport, or if ya wanna go to say wexford from galway it takes almost a full days travel compared to maybe 4 hours by car even with traffic. Also climate change seems to always be followed by taxes and charges on everyone bar big business and the rich. Till we see a fuel tax on private jets, boats etc for all the wealthy, nobody needs to watch a conspiracy video
Let’s not do enough. It costs us less, there’ll be less short-term whinging and future generation(s) can pick up the pieces. Everything is too much or too little or too much or too soon or too late or too costly or just for votes or will lose votes … why bother do anything when no one else is doing the same or as much. Let’s just throw in the hat.
Petrol not patrol
Ryan foisted diesel cars on us, based on how the motor companies played him for a fool, now Ryan is pushing electric cars,…
Jazes. The number of Irish people that openly admit that they won’t be decent humans unless EVERYONE ELSE I THE ENTIRE WORLD is decent.
What a cop out.
No to E cars, too expensive and requires up to 10 hours charging for 3 hours at best drive.
have your say