Mayo view: When will climate action become a reality?

By Barbara Daly

On our recent holiday to Italy we drove back to the airport at Milan Bergamot in the middle of the day.

It was a six lane motorway and apart from the fact that it was very busy and cars were whizzing past at speed, what struck us was the volume of trucks that were driving on it.

We were passing through an area of high industry judging by the huge factories on either side. However, I could not help but wonder what all this said about climate action and how seriously it is being taken.

So many of our goods are still being delivered and moved around by great big diesel-guzzling trucks.

I don’t know what the alternative is but looking at that scene would not inspire confidence that change is happening fast enough, if at all.

Surely we should be seeing, among other changes, global shifting of energy production and use on a huge scale if we are to have any hope of preventing a catastrophe?

We must also look at what we are doing on an individual level to change our use of energy and reduce our carbon footprint. When I look at the lifestyle of my family I can see that we have not embraced the changes that should be urgent priorities in our life.

We are still burning gas and using a solid fuel stove, though we are not burning coal anymore. We have two cars - petrol and diesel - when really if we were willing to put up with a bit of discomfort and inconvenience we could conceivably do with just one.

We have no solar panels on the roof and we live in an older house that is likely leaking energy throughout the winter. We went on a foreign holiday this year instead of holidaying at home.

So why are we living like this? Do we not care about climate change? Money is a large part of our decision-making process. We cannot afford an EV or the necessary retrofit of our house right now.

We cannot afford to completely change our heating system either. However we are not working towards change like we should be nor, I am ashamed to say, do we regard it as a priority.

We do care about climate change but not so much that we are willing to make large scale changes to our lifestyle to help prevent it. We are not taking personal responsibility like we should be.

It is hard to admit this, but it is easy to pay lip service to climate action and agree with the activists. Having occasional bouts of fear about the world we are handing over to our children is not enough to spur us into action. Stick your head in the sand because let’s face it, it is not harming us directly right now, and sure everyone else is doing the same.

This is where urgent government action is needed, firstly to provide the grants and infrastructure that will enable everyone to make the necessary changes to their houses, businesses and transport.

Then this must be combined with legislation to enforce these changes. We should not be given a choice. Unfortunately few of us take absolute personal responsibility for these types of decisions and therefore we need to be forced to.

The government has just been forced to accept €14 billion from Apple and while I get that they have to be careful not to overheat the economy, etc., surely the only responsible way to spend that money for the future is on climate action measures?

Then we might actually have a future.

* Read Barbara Daly's A Woman's View column in our print edition every Tuesday