New roads and climate obligations

Sir, – The Government has declared a climate emergency, but is obviously hoping to be able to carry on essentially as normal. Witness the extraordinary sums set aside for new roads, which should surely now be urgently reallocated to projects that actually contribute to the realisation of our climate goals, rather than actively sabotaging them.

We need to see a conclusive end to our obsolete fixation with new fossil fuel-heavy projects. It is hypocritical of the Government to talk the talk on climate change, and then spend billions of euro on roads.

However hard it may be, we have to find new ways of organising our society and economy. Unqualified economic growth, of the kind used to justify new road projects, can no longer in itself be a desirable objective. You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it. – Yours, etc,

EDWARD HOPKINSON,

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Westport,

Co Mayo.