With the German Green Party narrowly pipping Laschet's CDU party in polls, this gaffe could prove decisive in elections later this year. Growing demand for climate action has sprung Green Parties into governments on a cyclical basis since the 1980s. In Luxembourg and Austria, the Greens compromised key positions on the premise of getting climate action over the line. Previously aspirational calls for climate action were quickly replaced with sombre assurances that a bill less ambitious even than Fine Gael's own climate action plan was “world-leading”. Green Party Councillor for Cork City South East, Lorna Bogue: "The Green Party diluted their own ill-prepared Climate Bill to create headroom for increased carbon emissions."

Source: Irish Examiner July 22, 2021 19:18 UTC