LAST UPDATE | 25 Nov 2024

AN ACADEMIC EVALUATION of nine party manifestos for climate activists Friends of the Earth has found that the leading parties’ environmental policies are “weak”.

The analysis for Friends of the Earth (FoE) said that while Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin made good progress to commit to renewable energy targets and retrofitting schemes, pledges to “genuine, transformative climate action is still weak”.

All three parties failed, scoring an E grade, according to FoE’s analysis. Meanwhile, smaller parties were most likely to have made progressive commitments to climate action, with the study finding its commitments were “core” to their manifestos.

Labour scored the highest, achieving an A grade, followed by the Social Democrats, The Green Party and People Before Profit. Aontú and Independent Ireland scored a G grade, with the climate group claiming that both parties failed to make adequate pledges.

Manifesto scorecard. Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth

Manifestos were measured against FoE’s Programme for Faster and Fairer Climate Action 2025-2030 that calls for a people-centred approach to climate action with better leadership and accountability from government, a focus on retrofitting and renewable energy, public transport reform and nature restoration.

The assessment was carried out by academics including Dr Cara Augustenborg of University College Dublin, a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council, Professor Hannah Daly of University College Cork, and Professor Mary Murphy of Maynooth University.

FoE Chief executive Oisín Coghlan said it was alarming that the parties who are vying for Oifig an Taoisigh had “failed this independent climate assessment”. He claimed that their manifestos’ policies would not reduce emissions fast enough to meet 2030 targets.

“I hope the three would-be [Taoisigh] will be challenged in Tuesday’s RTE Leaders’ Debate about their climate policies. Climate change isn’t going away and we need to know are they ready to deliver faster and fairer action,” Coughlan said.

He added that policies should include a focus on driving the transformations needed in the climate to meet the 2030 goals, not “leaving it to subsidies, taxes and individual behaviour change”.

The Green Party, which scored a B grade, has centred its campaign around the climate crisis. It claims that party TDs are needed to keep the government in line with the policies that are needed to achieve the EU 2030 goals to reduce emissions by 55%.

Cycling

Separately today, the Irish Cycling Campaign has ranked the Green Party the best at prioritising cycling and Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil the worst out of seven parties. 

It says that the parties receiving good grades were the Green Party, Labour, Social Democrats, explaining that these were “clear in their prioritisation of active & sustainable transport and had detailed targets for funding and resources to support this”.

“In the middle were Sinn Féin and People Before Profit who had many positive policies but lacked policy specifics,” the campaign said.

“Those with a weaker commitment – Fianna Fáil & Fine Gael – showed a poorer commitment to prioritise active and sustainable transport and had few specific targets.”

Green Party

Leader of the Green Party Roderic O’Gorman has today told the Irish Times that he believes Sinn Féin are not interested in discussing climate action, claiming the party “hasn’t said a word about climate” since 2020. 

He also disagreed with Sinn Fein’s proposal to axe the carbon tax, and criticised his coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for blocking a Green Party proposal to release funds from the Climate and Nature fund to businesses and public services.

Meanwhile, the Green Party’s Catherine Martin said: “What is alarming is that the three main parties, one who will probably hold the office of the Taoiseach, are failing and failing miserably.

“I say alarming, but not surprising, having been in government with two of those parties. It only points to the fact that we have been driving the change. As (party colleague) Neasa (Hourigan) has said, we are certainly taking top of the charts on delivery.”

Dublin Central Green Party candidate Neasa Hourigan meanwhile remarked that “talk is cheap”.

“There’s no metric in that core of what you actually do when you’re in power, and when we were actually in power, we reduced our emissions and we created two new national parks.

“The reality is that when Labour were in government, they did exactly zero on the environment, and in my local area it is Labour and Social Democrats who are actively blocking every piece of public transport that we propose.

“The proof is in the pudding, and the green pudding actually delivers results.”