Green Party MEPs Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan have written to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, asking him to back the overwhelming scientific evidence and push for ambitious climate targets at the December European Council coming up this week.Ciarán Cuffe, Green MEP for Dublin said: “Grace O’Sullivan MEP and I have urged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to push for a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. It’s a position all Irish MEPs have already taken in the European Parliament, when we voted with the Greens/EFA to back an EU Climate Law calling for the 60% reduction by 2030. In our letter we reminded the Taoiseach that this was an historic cross-party vote in which all Irish MEPs voted in favour.”The letter also highlights the fact that the EU Climate Law is the overarching policy tool to ensure the Commission’s flagship European Green Deal objectives are reached.Ambitious action on climate is not limited to European politics, the MEPs stressed in the letter, with unanimous cross-party support from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action for the 60% reduction by 2030.“Ambitious targets have been proposed in the European Climate Law to reduce GHG emissions in a way that allows the planet some hope of healing,” Grace O’Sullivan, Green MEP for Ireland South, said “It’s essential that governments now follow suit. We need swift and decisive climate action in a decade that’s crucial in the fight to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 C and bring Ireland a step closer to fulfilling its commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Copy of the letter sent to the Taoiseach.