Taoiseach among world leaders to attend COP30 summit
Ottoline Spearman
The Taoiseach will be among 60 world leaders to attend the COP30 summit in Brazil next week.
The annual UN climate change summit takes place a decade after the Paris Agreement was signed by 195 countries, committing them to keeping global emissions to 1.5 degrees celsius.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Micheál Martin said: "I will be going to Cop30 in Brazil with the clear message that Ireland remains steadfast in our commitment to tackle climate change.”
He said that while the country's emissions are falling, “we need to do more and do it quicker”.
While Ireland’s emissions are relatively small, per capita, they are among the world’s highest. Ireland had the second highest emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU-27 in 2022, at 11.7 tonnes of CO2.
Ireland's emissions fell by 1.9 per cent in 2022, 6.8 per cent in 2023 and by a provisional 2 per cent last year. However, the target is a cumulative 51 per cent drop by 2030 and the forecast shows only a 23 per cent reduction is likely.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, who will be attending the conference, called on world leaders to resist aligning with US President Trump’s denial of the accelerating climate crisis.
The US withdrew for the second time from the Paris Agreement in January, and Mr Trump will not be attending COP30.
"COP30 in Brazil presents an opportunity for collective resistance against those trying to reverse years of commitments and efforts to keep global warming below 1.5°C. The fact that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere soared by a record amount last year should ring alarm bells for world leaders at COP30.
“Amnesty International is urging governments to resist aligning with the Trump administration’s denial of the accelerating climate crisis and instead demonstrate true climate leadership. In the face of President Trump’s rejection of science, coupled with the intensified lobbying for fossil fuels, global leaders must redouble their efforts to take urgent climate action - with or without the US.
"They must push back against attempts to curtail funding for renewable energy projects and resist the bullying efforts by the USA and others to weaken policies and regulations to combat climate change.
“Humanity can win if states commit at COP30 to a full, fast, fair and funded fossil-fuel phase-out and just transition to sustainable energy for all, in all sectors, as recently confirmed by the International Court of Justice’s recent Advisory Opinion.
"These commitments must go hand-in-hand with a significant injection of climate finance, in the form of grants, not loans, from states that are the worst culprits for greenhouse gas emissions.
"Crucially, states must take steps to protect climate activists and environmental defenders. This is the only way to secure climate justice and protect the human rights of billions of people.”
