Taoiseach feels the heat after offhand climate change remark

Environmentalists say Leo Varadkar’s comments about the supposed upsides of the climate crisis reveal Fine Gael’s deep fear of alienating the farming vote

Members of the Extinction Rebellion climate protest group respond to the Taoiseach’s comments by bringing their beach wear to the gates of the Dáil Pic: Collins

‘We need to talk about Leo Varadkar. We really do.” This recent tweet by An Taisce’s climate spokesman John Gibbons neatly summed up the growing fury among environmentalists towards the Taoiseach after his suggestion that there were pluses as well as minuses to climate change.

The sense of anger quickly spread among activists. Many pointed out that the warmer winters the Taoiseach had highlighted would be accompanied by severe storms and flooding. Others ...