The Green Party has hit out at the government and said they are being seen as "laggard not a leader" on climate change.

The party accused the government of shaming Ireland and said they will be judged on actions, not words, at COP21 in Paris.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said: The Government have spent huge amounts of political capital pleading with the EU to be recognised as a 'special case', and get off the hook on EU 2030 emissions targets. While the UK, France and Germany will promise to cut their emissions by 40% by 2030, we have negotiated a deal where we barely increase the level of ambition beyond the cut that we already promised, and they will fail to deliver, for 2020.

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"They are shaming us by extending the operation of peat fired power plants by 15 years, spending €120 million every year to keep them open. Such an approach is uneconomic and morally indefensible. The state needs to divest from the burning of fossil fuels and arrange for the closure of the Moneypoint coal fired power plant and a commit to not allowing fracking for shale gas in Ireland.

"They are shaming us by pursuing unsustainable agricultural expansion. Instead of encouraging high quality, local produce where our farmers get paid a decent price, they are fixated on the maximum quantity, minimum price model big food processors want. During the fodder crisis, we couldn’t feed the cattle we had. How can Irish farmers expect to feed 300,000 more? Not sustainably, that's for sure."

(CD)