Sinn Féin and Fine Gael on wrong side of history regarding climate crisis

The Ireland awaiting the next government will be far behind in its commitments. It will be no country for an administration faint-hearted on climate. Illustration: Paul ScottSinn Féin, the alternative government and party of change, is absent without leave on climate change. In an Ireland that perfected the art of practising religions in which it doesn’t believe, the need for reformation in the face of climate Armageddon is the latest piety to be mumbled and disregarded.

The mumbling matters because it gives comfort to those in the party who require reassurance. It matters more because as the Environmental Protection Agency laid bare last week, the Ireland that will be led by the next Government from 2025 to 2030 will be far behind in its commitments. It will be no country for a faint-hearted government on climate.

Shunning the change required to tackle climate change is status quo politics. It also manages a coalition of voters who could leave Sinn Féin as quickly as they arrived. The party is wary of discomforting, let alone confronting, them. Sinn Féin presents itself differently to different audiences. In that, it is like other parties, but it manages the ambiguity more successfully. If its position on climate can only be read between the lines of the little it says, that matters.

An Opposition party without clear commitments on climate falls far short of being an alternative government As the Sinn Féin tent grows, its internal ideological cohesion diminishes. That is dealt with by quietly moving on from previous positions, avoiding difficult new issues, while turning up the volume on the rest. And the rest leaves the party a lot to work with. The intensive criticism of Government on climate, without game-changing commitments of its own, is tactically savvy.

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