2024 General Election manifesto analysis for faster and fairer climate action
In the lead-up to Ireland’s 2024 General Election, the urgency of climate action has never been greater. In response to this, an Earth Institute independent research group has published a General Election 2024 Manifesto Analysis for Faster and Fairer Climate Action report, an independent evaluation of political party manifestos, commissioned by the Friends of the Earth Ireland. The analysis was conducted by Dr Cara Augustenborg (UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy), Professor Hannah Daly (University College Cork) and Professor Mary Murphy (Maynooth University).
The report assessed the extent to which the nine main political parties are prepared to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, providing a critical lens through which voters and policymakers can gauge Ireland’s climate future. The report aimed to determine which political party manifestos prioritised climate action as a core policy area and proposed credible strategies for achieving fair, fast and equitable greenhouse gas emission reductions, in line with Ireland’s 2030 targets.
The evaluation revealed striking contrasts in the ambition and coherence of climate policies with smaller parties demonstrating transformative leadership and larger parties falling behind on key sustainability goals. Focusing on five core areas of leadership, homes, energy, transport, and food, the report concludes that Ireland’s largest parties have yet to embrace the transformative climate policies necessary to meet national and international climate goals and targets.
Key Findings Across Policy Areas
The evaluation revealed both promising commitments and critical gaps in the manifestos:
Leadership and Accountability: Labour’s proposal for a Minister for Future Generations exemplified an innovative, long-term approach to embedding sustainability within government structures. Similarly, the Green Party highlighted community engagement as a cornerstone of their leadership vision. However, larger parties lacked concrete plans to meet Ireland’s carbon budgets in the critical years leading to 2030.
Renewable Energy: Smaller parties, particularly Labour and People Before Profit, made strong commitments to phasing out fossil fuels and prioritising renewable energy for households. By contrast, larger parties focused narrowly on expanding renewable energy capacity without addressing the need to eliminate fossil fuel infrastructure.
Transport: Innovative proposals like the “Climate Ticket” put forward by Labour and the Green Party highlighted opportunities to make public transport more affordable and reduce car dependency. However, larger parties lacked a coherent vision for transitioning to fossil-free transport, with limited policies to support active travel and public transport expansion.
Warm Homes: The Labour Party and Social Democrats led the way in prioritising energy-efficient retrofitting for vulnerable communities. In contrast, Aontú and Sinn Féin provided no substantive policies to address housing energy efficiency, a critical component of reducing emissions and energy poverty.
Agriculture: The Social Democrats and Labour presented detailed strategies to support family farmers while reducing emissions and restoring biodiversity. Larger parties, however, avoided confronting carbon-intensive farming practices, reflecting a reluctance to embrace transformative reform in this sector.
Conclusion
The research group’s findings underscored significant differences in the coherence and ambition of climate policies across the political spectrum. While smaller parties like Labour, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party integrated climate action comprehensively into their manifestos, larger parties such as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Sinn Féin presented fragmented or limited approaches. The research group’s analysis emphasised the importance of embedding sustainability across all policy areas.
In reflecting on the assessment, the judges remarked:
“This process was illuminating and gave insight into the coherence of each party’s engagement with the existential climate challenge. Parties who did best committed to systematic, ambitious, high-level interventions with significant impact. Their policies delivered both ecological and social outcomes and promised the necessary investment in state and institutional capacity to deliver on targets. Larger political parties need to take a close look at what the smaller, transformative parties propose and follow suit if they intend to make Ireland a resilient, competitive, and healthy place to live and work.
For this evaluation, in order to show their commitment to deliver on Ireland’s climate pledge, political parties had to prioritise climate and nature across their manifesto, as well as providing credible, practical, and detailed plans to deliver faster and fairer emissions cuts. We were positively surprised there was more than one political party capable of this.”
However, they noted that the ambitions of smaller parties still highlight the gap in larger parties’ commitments. Dr Augustenborg, Professor Daly, and Professor Murphy concluded:
“Parties who performed well committed to systematic, ambitious, high-level interventions with significant impact. Their policies delivered both ecological and social outcomes and promised the necessary investment in state and institutional capacity to deliver on targets.”
Eoin O’Neill, Director of the Earth Institute, reflected on the broader implications of the report:
“The evaluation underscores the urgency of climate action in Ireland and the need for systemic, forward-thinking leadership. Political parties must see climate and environmental policies as central to building a fairer, more resilient society. The next government has an opportunity – and a responsibility – to place sustainability at the heart of its agenda.
By highlighting the strengths and weaknesses in party manifestos, this analysis by the UCD Earth Institute’s independent research group provides a roadmap for a sustainable and equitable future. For Ireland to meet its climate pledges, bold leadership and integrated policies must become the norm not the exception.”
