Unfortunately, the advice seems to have been lost on the current Government — which seems content to let the fabric of our climate obligations tear wide open, even if it means costly repair bills.

Ireland faces a bill as high as €26bn for missing its EU climate targets, standing out as the worst in Europe per capita on its pledge to reduce emissions by 2030.

A major report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) and the Climate Change Advisory Council says Ireland risks paying “colossal” costs in the years ahead, but added that it isn’t too late to act now to limit the damage with significant investment in the likes of the energy grid and electric vehicles.

Yet, even as this news was being reported, we also heard that the minister for transport, environment, climate, and energy, Darragh O’Brien, was seeking Government approval to develop a State-led liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal.

While this will be dressed up as a strategic reserve and vital for energy security as the State continues to transition to clean renewable energy, essentially it is spending a lot of public money on locking us into fossil fuel infrastructure.

In economics, it is an opportunity cost — the loss of other alternatives when one choice is made. It is also ironic, given the report’s advice to invest in other areas such as building the resilience of the national grid.

The draft programme for government showed a worrying shift away from the necessary momentum and action to address our climate and biodiversity crises and provide for a sustainable society, not to mention the huge costs coming down the road if we don’t act now.

The liquefied natural gas decision indicates that the worrying shift is crystallising into concrete action.

As part of the move to clean, renewable, and fossil-free energy, the Government should keep Ireland free of fracked gas and liquefied natural gas imports by introducing a permanent ban in legislation and not permitting new infrastructure that prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels.

Storm Éowyn showed how vulnerable our electricity infrastructure was to storms and extreme weather.

The Government would be better served investing more in our electricity infrastructure to make it more resilient and to prepare the grid to carry more renewable energy.

Developing an updated national strategy for renewable energy rollout would be a better approach. This could include: 

• Greater microgeneration supports; 
• Solar panels on the roof of every school and 1m homes by 2030; 
• Increased funding for community solar projects that allow low-income households to benefit from solar energy without needing to install individual systems; 
• Supporting community energy groups with access to grid connection so that communities can lead the renewable nature positive energy transition.

There are concrete steps that the next government can take which would have a real impact on emissions, build energy resilience, and would make meaningful improvements to our quality of life, ensuring that no person — regardless of their economic circumstance — is left behind.

As well as rejecting liquefied natural gas, removing fossil fuel subsidies in our taxation system, providing free school bus places, and retrofitting all social housing and the homes of those at-risk of energy poverty by 2030 are examples of the many ways we can reduce emissions and make Ireland a better place to live.

Unfortunately, there are other signs that the Government is not serious about meeting our climate commitments.

The failure to maintain the modest 2:1 spending ratio in favour of new public transport versus new roads is a mistake and will lead to increased emissions.

We are already seeing this in action — funding for the construction of cycle lanes and other “active travel” infrastructure across Dublin has been slashed by almost €16m for this year.

Elsewhere in travel, the programme for government also included a clause that it would work with stakeholders to achieve the objective of lifting the passenger cap at Dublin Airport as soon as possible.

Such a commitment shows little regard for dealing with emissions from the aviation sector.

Overall, Ireland seems to be stuck in a business as usual mode across every sector.

The programme of government’s commitment to allowing an increase in the number of data centres, without an independent national review of current and projected data centre energy demand, is also disappointing.

Agriculture remains the State’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) and the Climate Change Advisory Council recommends that the Government could look at changing incentives in the agriculture sector.

However, in contrast to very clear commitments for more public money for various farm activities, the programme for government is vague in committing funding to farmers for nature restoration.

Without new and additional funding, farmers won’t have the support they need to restore nature.

In addition, the Government appears to be doing the very minimum required in terms of promoting a circular economy and does not show any great ambition towards increasing circularity in Ireland.

We need a greater focus on a model of production and consumption that involves repairing, recycling, and reusing existing materials for as long as possible.

It is clear that our Government is prioritising economic growth over environmental protections.

However, this is short-term thinking on their part.

The actions the Government takes in the next five years will be pivotal in determining whether we will meet our climate responsibilities or reverse biodiversity loss and avoid a hefty bill from the EU.

If it fails, as a nation, we may be down to our last threads, just at the same time as we will be forced to adapt to a changing climate that we failed to mitigate.

We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

• Ciarán Brennan is communications officer with the Irish Environmental Network, an umbrella network of environmental NGOs