Last Thursday Deputy Ahern raised the issue of climate with the Tánaiste. In response the Tánaiste said: The climate emergency has not gone away; far from it. We need to look at how we can accelerate the pace of change that needs to take place. I agree with the Tánaiste. One thing we should not be doing is appointing a climate denier to lead out on the new EU 2040 climate targets but that is exactly what Fine Gael MEPs voted to do last Wednesday. Last week the European Parliament was considering the process for the EU setting its 2040 climate targets. The Patriots for Europe group - the group of Viktor Orbán and Marine le Pen - managed to get appointed as chief negotiator for the policy. That group proudly declares on its website that it calls for abandoning the European Green Deal, so we have climate change deniers setting the 2040 targets. The Greens in the European Parliament led a vote to stop this but the European People's Party - the party of Fine Gael and the Tánaiste - supported allowing climate deniers set the 2040 targets. What is more, three of the four Fine Gael MEPs - Regina Doherty, Nina Carberry and Seán Kelly - voted to allow this happen. Globally, we are at a crucial time in our fight to lower emissions. Critical negotiations will take place during COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November. We are all very aware of the position of the new US Administration. That is why the leadership the EU has demonstrated over so many years is so critical. Who leads out on setting the EU climate targets has never been more important. That is why the vote of the European People's Party and the three Fine Gael MEPs could not have come at a worse time. I have a simple question for the Tánaiste: does he think it is a good idea that a climate denier is leading out on the EU's 2040 climate targets? What will he do about it?

Sentiment score: -0.00

There was a vote in the European Parliament last week and three Fine Gael MEPs voted for Ondej Knotek as rapporteur on climate policy. During his term in the European Parliament, he said: [The] policies of climate activists, as you are, are not leading to saving the climate. You are lying to people about that if they will be ambitious, that there will be no floods and so on.... But that's not true. You have no data, you have no science base, you have no impact assessments: you are just lying. No science, no data - that is your guy, Tánaiste. That is the guy Fine Gael voted to put in this vital role. While the rest of us have moved away from denying the existence of climate change, Fine Gael MEPs have decided to appoint to this crucial role a person who denies there is science linking changes in our climate. Did the Tánaiste know his three MEPs were voting for a far fight climate denier in this essential role?

Sentiment score: -0.29