Ms Sadhbh O'Neill:

A few things have happened in the past few years and are continuing to happen. We are building institutions, and we are building a legal and regulatory framework to address climate action. There have been very significant policy changes in many areas. Those policies are now being implemented at a much faster pace. There is some good news, but the point on political risk is really critical. We can see at EU level that there will be pressure to water down some elements of the EU green deal. Already climate action has been demoted from its central position in the EU strategy post 2025. This is an extremely worrying matter not to mention the measures that have been taken in relation to agriculture land use and biodiversity in recent months. That is even before the European Parliament elections. There is a great danger of losing the public trust and losing key stakeholders.

In an Irish context, we can already see some pressure at a local level to water down renewable energy commitments in climate action plans and in county development plans, but at least in that case we have a planning regulator that can enforce some of these things.

My key advice as someone who has watched the politics of this for some years is not to waste time. We wasted so much time during the recession. If we had the political impetus then, we would not be in such a difficult place now of trying to catch up on all that wasted time. I would also suggest avoiding lock in. We should not build things that are going to drive up emissions through behaviour or through embodied emissions. I ask too that the fossil fuel phase-out issue be addressed. Even though we can see across Europe - Ireland is a case in point - that we will decarbonise the electricity system and separate out economic growth from emissions, that will not fundamentally get us to climate neutrality unless we phase out fossil fuels. This will require some really difficult decisions around home heating systems and new gas connections and gas infrastructure. Finally, we have to address the economic model issue. We have very high levels of resource use and energy use per capita but that is driven in many cases by large energy users and by a certain kind of lock-in decision making around our planning system and so on. All of these things can be addressed in the NECP and in the long-term strategies if we grasp the nettle.