In the opening months of 2020, many governments around the world acted with remarkable speed in taking action to combat: Geography Environmental Policies Assignment, DCU, Ireland

In the opening months of 2020, many governments around the world acted with remarkable speed in taking action to combat the spread of Covid-19, though with considerable variation between countries and regions. Many of the measures imposed, such as lockdowns and other restrictions on public movement, closure of businesses, and of schools and universities were without parallel in living memory.

The speed and scale of governmental responses led many to draw parallels with another looming global challenge, namely the climate crisis. For many years, climate scientists and environmental activists sought to draw attention to the dangers posed by uncontrolled climate change, with seemingly little traction.

This article is concerned with how the Irish state has responded institutionally to climate change. The climate crisis and Covid-19 bear some similarities, but there are also important differences. Both require large scale society-wide changes in behavior and public acceptance. However, while such societal transformation required to deal with Covid-19 is hopefully a temporary phenomenon, the transformation required to combat climate change will be more lasting.

Responding to climate change in a manner consistent with the aim of the Paris Agreement, to ‘the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels’, will require radical and transformative change, beginning now and lasting several decades. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘there is no documented historic precedent’ for the scale of such transformation.