President Michael D Higgins has said that the need for collective action addressing the climate crisis becomes more evident every month and that the defence of previous generations that "we did not know" is no longer available.
Speaking at a climate conference at DCU in Dublin, President Higgins said Government departments and State agencies must become exemplars in climate mitigation, given the whole-of-Government approach needed to curb emissions.
He also highlighted the State's pivotal role as owners of land and infrastructure which is likely to be impacted by climate change.
The president said the role of the State as a transformative, active institutional instrument has been ravaged by decades of attack from right-wing laissez faire economics insisting that the private sector should lead in all aspects of life. This, he said, has undermined the significance of the State over four decades and weakened its institutions.
He said the role of the State must be recovered and its constructive and potentially transformative role in our lives needs to be reasserted.
He said that the public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic proved that the State has the capacity to deliver universal services to the highest standards in the most adverse circumstances when the will is there.
In relation to climate change, President Higgins said we are on the precipice of a global catastrophe and called for the adoption of a universal mindset and a shift to an eco-social paradigm, as well as targeted measures to ensure a just transition.
He said we urgently need to forge new connections between ecology, economics and ethics for the sake of our shared, fragile planet and its global citizens.
He added that it is indefensible that another 100 million people will be doomed to extreme poverty by 2030 should we fail to honour the commitment to tackle climate change.
