Tackling the climate crisis – looking to Denmark

Sir, – There is a general view that Ireland is immune to extremes of climate change being experienced in India, Pakistan, right across the US and now in the Eastern Caribbean, where Storm Beryl is flattening homes and devastating agriculture. But this is not the case.

The Environmental Protection Agency states that all the climate projections for the next century indicate that observed climate trends will continue and intensify over the coming decades, including increased frequency and intensity of storms, more river and coastal flooding, heightened water stress for crops and pressure on water supply and water quality.

People have yet to be convinced to change their behaviour. But what is the alternative?

It seems one country may have taken the first steps along the road to a solution.

Our friend has warned us against planting a hawthorn boundary hedge. What can we use instead?

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Last month, Denmark announced an historic tax on farm emissions – making it the first country in the world to put a levy on agriculture while allocating billions for rewilding. The agreement followed months of negotiations between the government, nature and farming groups with the aim of ensuring that the country reaches its 2030 climate target.

This approach is a template for other countries, including Ireland, to follow. To date, academics and environmentalists have limited themselves to launching evidence-based missiles at the various fossil-fuel emitting sectors in the hope that something will stick.

An alternative approach is to do what the Danes are doing. All stakeholders in each greenhouse gas-emitting sector to sit down together with the interested parties and agree a medium- to long-term plan that all interested parties can agree on. – Yours, etc,

CATHERINE CONLON,

Ballintemple,

Cork.