{"id":416187,"date":"2026-04-25T02:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416187\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T02:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:20:26","slug":"most-blame-government-not-themselves-for-high-carbon-footprint-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416187\/","title":{"rendered":"Most blame Government, not themselves, for high carbon footprint &#8211; poll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Most Irish people believe the responsibility for cutting carbon emissions lies with the Government &#8211; not themselves, a new poll to mark Earth Day has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>56% of people said the Government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/climate-change-finds-irelands-infrastructures-lacking-2235698\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">needs to do more to reduce the nation\u2019s carbon footprint<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, an even greater number, 75%, said they had no personal responsibility for climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In global terms, Ireland has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/news\/it-will-only-get-worse-eight-million-in-malawi-at-risk-of-hunger-amid-climate-chaos-1651231\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">relatively high carbon footprint<\/a>, with the average Irish person using 6.34 tons of cabron per year, according to Our World In Data.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, the global average is 4.73 tons per person and the EU average is 5.39 tons per citizen.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/shows\/newstalk-breakfast-234855\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newstalk Breakfast<\/a>, Friends of the Earth Ireland spokesperson Jerry MacEvilly said politicans needs to do more to combat the planet&#8217;s \u201cfossil fuel price emergency\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s striking that the majority of Irish people think the Government isn&#8217;t doing enough,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I guess the key issue here is that people on their own, they simply are not in a position to not use their car in the morning, to not heat their home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1452153\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/H0CHJG.jpg\" alt=\"A man installing a rooftop solar panel array.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"\/> A man installing a rooftop solar panel array. Picture by: Radharc Images \/ Alamy.<\/p>\n<p>Mr MacEvilly added that other Governments have responded to the Iran War by increasing subsidies for decarbonisation measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the Dutch government has done to support households, they not only have addressed the fuel issue, they&#8217;ve also put in additional supports for the likes of insulation, for the likes of keeping your home warmer,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, in other words, they have, in contrast with the Irish Government, really focused on how they can also help not only particular industries, but also householders who are reliant on fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2141987\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/WIND-TURBINES-CONNEMARA-8758_90721805.jpg\" alt=\"8\/2\/2025. Connemara, Galway, Connacht, Ireland. Turbines on Wind Farms in Connacht. As the people of South Connemara suffered severe wind damage during Storm Eowyn, and a large section of the population waited for more than a week to get their power back, they must have been struck by the irony of having no light, heat, cooking, or washing facilities, while on the hills all around them, were almost a hundred wind turbines pumping out clean electricity, in one of the countries highest concentration of wind farms. Photo shows turbines on Leitir Guingaid Wind Farm. Photo: Eamonn Farrell\/ \u00a9 RollingNews.ie\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1114\"\/> A wind farm in Galway. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell\/ \u00a9 RollingNews.ie<\/p>\n<p>Mr MacEvilly continued that the current crisis cost of living \u201cultimately comes down to Ireland [being] so highly reliant on fossil fuels\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However, he said many measures that cut households costs are not prohibitively expensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor example, insulation in your home,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, there are definitely measures that Government can be taking to support people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Budget 2026, the Government allocated a record \u20ac640 million for retrofitting.<\/p>\n<p>Demand has soared for upgrades has soared, with a 96% increase since last year.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: Miche\u00e1l Martin and Simon Harris. Picture by: Rialtas na h\u00c9ireann.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most Irish people believe the responsibility for cutting carbon emissions lies with the Government &#8211; not themselves, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-416187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}