Killarney based MEP Seán Kelly is to represent his Ireland South constituency at the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Fine Gael politician will attend as a European Parliament delegate on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of which he is a member.
“Ireland, the EU and the global community have failed on climate change so far. It is important to admit that failure, own it and move forward with a renewed purpose to do better,”Mr Kelly said.
“We have major challenges ahead but the good news is I believe we have the needed solutions if we have the societal and political will to persevere in implementing them”, he said ahead of attending the conference from this Sunday.
Mr Kelly said the climate goals are ambitious and they need to be but there is a requirement to be very practical and solution-orientated on the road to achieving them.
“We need to empower and support people, farmers and businesses to make the changes needed to get us there. We all have a part to play and we will only succeed with collective effort – that applies to all countries and individuals,” he stated.
Under the European Green Deal, the European Union has set a target of becoming climate neutral by 2050 but, Mr Kelly stressed, it is critical that such policies are not overly detrimental to industry, jobs and livelihoods.
“We need to depoliticise the energy transition in particular and inject more practically into long term planning. This is too important for progress to be scuppered by ideology,” he said.
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