Climate change: Ireland is big enough to matter

Sir, – The headline “Ireland should reconvert Moneypoint to coal, say engineers” (Business, May 8th) might suggest to a hasty reader that the engineering community has reached a consensus. There is no such thing.

The coverage refers to a conclusion reached by authors of a series of reports from the Irish Academy of Engineering, advocating development of various fossil fuel infrastructure. The foundation for these arguments is presented briefly in the opening pages of a November 2025 report: “Regardless of what Ireland might achieve in reducing GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions, it will have no impact on the country’s climate.”

In other words, Ireland is too small to matter, and climate breakdown should take a low priority in our energy policy. If we start from this flawed premise, the technical analysis is straightforward. If we can’t or shouldn’t do anything about the crisis, then it seems reasonable enough to invest in fossil fuels.

Any reckoning of responsibility to engage with the climate crisis must be related to per capita quantities, and not to the absolute size of a country or region. If this is a subject for debate, it has legal, social, geopolitical and moral dimensions, outside the scope of engineering analysis. “Too small to matter” is a weak link in the technical argument for rehabilitation of fossil fuel combustion. – Yours, etc,