Full coverage: Climate change

The urgent need to stop carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is nothing new, but farmers and food processors were hoping the different gas released by livestock could be stabilised. The IPCC’s new report shows it must go down too.

Despite abundant knowledge on what needs to be done to stop global warming, it is not happening for the simple reason that nobody wants to do it. Humanity’s next best chance lies in technology.

Carbon Collect is the brainchild of Irish entrepreneurs and former oil executives. It has now secured US government backing to tackle greenhouse gases with its “mechanical trees”.

When he started his low-carbon cement manufacturing company 20 years ago, Donal O’Riain freely admits that the timing was wrong. Now high-profile investors are injecting millions into Ecocem’s promise to fix one of the world’s worst-polluting industries.

Multiple assessments of the Irish economy agree that the long-term issues facing us are intergenerational inequality, firms dealing with technological change, and climate change. Here is how we can tackle them.

From science to soul-searching, the industry is showing signs of a deep shift in addressing its environmental impact. The bad news is that the rest of the world has moved on, and rules are long set for the rest of this decade. The good news is that work taking place now will be useful to tackle the real challenge coming after 2030.

As budgetary caution evaporates under the Covid-19 shock, energy efficiency, buses and trains are getting funded like never before. Can these new environmental priorities survive into the future?

Much delayed legislation introduced by the Government on Wednesday will apply to Ireland the carbon budgeting world standard developed by the UK since 2008. It may not ban petrol cars as promised, but its ambition is much bigger: regulate the collaboration between scientific experts and politicians in solving their greatest challenge for the next 30 years.

The Programme for Government has promised €9.5 billion to help households and farmers become greener, funded by a four-fold increase in carbon tax over the coming decade. Data compiled by tax officials shows this is unlikely to happen.

For the first time in five years, new renewable electricity generation sites have been selected to receive government support, unlocking a new wave of pent-up investment, construction and corporate deals in the sector.