Warning that Greens in Government will not deliver on climate
Supporting a Fine Gael/ Fianna Fail coalition will be a historic mistake and won’t deliver the action needed says Bríd Smith TD
People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has said the formal entry of the Greens into talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail was a historic mistake that would lead to the betrayal of the Climate Action movement.
The TD claimed that no agreement with either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail could deliver the reductions needed in CO2 or see a fairer more just society as claimed in the Green list of demands last week.
She said: “Many young activists have placed their trust in the Green Party to lead the fight on climate action. If the Greens prop up a neo-liberal coalition with the pro-corporate business ideology of both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, they will betray that trust. Their participation in such a Government will offer the main parties a green whitewash to implement the same policies for another 5 years.”
The TD also questioned Fine Gael and Fianna Fail’s actual commitment to key demands such as a 7% CO2 reduction and ending fossil fuel infrastructure such as LNGs saying: “For the last 4 years we have seen them support the fossil fuel industry, you have to be incredibly naive to believe both parties have undergone a Damascus conversion.”
Deputy Smith said the only certainty in the Greens joining a coalition would be a hike in carbon taxes on ordinary people which both parties would gladly implement once the Green Party takes the fall for it.
She said: “It is ironic that one of the lessons of this pandemic, that mass personal behavioral change will not lead to the kind of CO2 reductions we need is going to be missed by the Green Party who will insist on increased carbon taxes on people when we need systemic change instead.”
The TD said only the building of a mass movement for climate action and justice could deliver that kind of systemic change and the reality was the movement did not have time to waste 5 years in a hopeless coalition with the parties of the past.”