He hasn’t minced his words here.
President Michael D. Higgins has urged the USA to reconsider Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Speaking at the European Federation of Public Service Unions Annual Congress at the RDS on Tuesday, President Higgins gave a speech in which he spoke at length about the benefits of both trade unions, and the growing fears that surround the current climate emergency.
He said:
“Let me say first that I see the role of public servants as being transformative in acting as champions for climate action, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation.
“Public servants have the capacity, given a real opportunity, to shape and implement policies in these spheres that will reduce the impact of climate change and enable society to adapt to the most destructive effects of a changing climate which we are already beginning to witness first hand – through, for instance, the increased severity and frequency of storms and extreme weather events.
“While the EU has a set of binding emissions targets for 2020 and 2030, we must now plan for full decarbonisation of our European economies by 2050, encouraging the rest of the world to follow suit, and urging in the strongest possible terms the USA to re-consider its regressive and pernicious decision to leave the global Paris Agreement.”
President Higgins made the comments a day before Trump is due in Ireland for his first official visit since taking office.
You can read the speech in full here.
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