By Sustainability Editor Erica Elliott.
We all know that climate change is an international fire alarm, sounding off and counting us down, and yet…corporations still continue to disguise their impacts, biodiversity disclosures are still not met, and individuals are feeling the weight.
With the current political state of the world, now more than ever, in a period when climate change is at the forefront, have you ever wondered how the geopolitical landscape affects climate change?
Over a coffee and a chat in DCU, Tommy Woods, a politics and history student spoke to The Bulletin about how geopolitics and climate change are more interlinked than we think.
As a term, geopolitics is commonly defined as the “analysis of the geographic influence on power relationships in international relations”.
The World Economic Forum published its annual Global Risks Report for 2026 at the start of this year, marking the second half of what they call, “a turbulent decade”. This report analyses the global risks throughout different timeframes to support decision-makers, balancing current crises and longer-term commitments.
In terms of progress being made, Tommy spoke about his course as a part of his politics module, studying climate change.
“I had a course about studying climate change. There is progress being made in certain countries, in certain places, but certainly it’s a concern”.
“People have to think about it, you have to be a fool not to really. And a lot of people make predictions for the future that don’t include climate change. They say, ‘Oh, with the current geopolitical landscape, in 15 years, China will be this, America will be this’, there’s so much stuff that’s completely unpredictable, and there’s so much stuff that we’re ignoring.
“And it’s like, the longest rebellion humankind has ever had is against nature, and it’s one that we have thought we’ve won 100 times and yet never have”.
The Former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joesp Borrel, said “achieving a fair distribution of efforts is particularly complex because climate change, and its antidote, the green transition, are shaking up the global balance of power”.
Climate change, if we manage to hinder its effects, will also radically alter the world’s geography. Specifically increased rainfall, the melting of glacial ice in the Arctic, the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) system which is essentially what science youtuber, Hank Green deems our “personal plumbing system”, and regulates our temperatures here in Ireland, keeping us from harsher winters.
In order to regulate our climate, and to keep it from entering code-red territory, global relations, our communications with other countries, and the governments’ with their people, need to spark change quickly.
With this in mind I asked Tommy about the threats facing climate change, the repercussions, and if he thinks global relations are interconnected with climate change action.
“You know, with the Gulf Stream collapsing, like, how is that gonna affect Ireland? We literally don’t know. It’s unprecedented. It’s an era that is completely unprecedented.
“You look at America, what’s going on over there? There’s a land war in Europe. There’s a genocide in the Middle East. America is wearing up to invade another part of the Middle East again.”
According to the EU, by 2050 over 1 billion people will have insufficient access to water and more than 200 million could have to emigrate. They go on to say how “climate change is clearly a major challenge for the stability of our neighbourhood and the security of our borders”.
In a recent appearance on RTE Radio 1’s ‘Today with David McCullagh’, Marie Donnelly, the chairperson of the Climate Change Advisory Council, warned listeners about our failure to reduce our emission targets.
Here in Ireland, we should be doing a lot more, and according to her statistics we’re currently at an estimate of 23%, when we need to be at a 51% reduction of 2018 levels by 2030.
“We’re in an incredibly privileged position. We get to have our cake and eat it too. We don’t have to care about anything and that… and like most things, people will only realise you’re doing something wrong until it blows up in your face,” Tommy said
“I mean, you know, we get to say, we get to condemn other countries for meeting their climate targets, while we fail ours again, again and again,” he added.
While agriculture here in Ireland is our “largest indigenous sector”, with more than 300,000 people employed directly or indirectly in the agriculture-food industry, the job supports thousands of people in the rural economy, but needs to be re-adapted sustainability wise.
A farmer, who spoke about re-generative farming in the Irish context has been gaining a lot of traction over the past few years, according to an article back in June of last year.
They estimate that the growth in the global market for this practice is expected to reach a value of $2.9 billion by 2030, which would indicate a 15.7% increase from 2023-2030. They believe that this sustainable method is “a necessary response to ecological, climatic and economic challenges facing modern agriculture”.
In terms of waste and our goal to limit our emissions, a lot of farmers could look into adopting a more sustainable approach, and “we’re not the only country that’s really making actual progress, it’s China.
And in terms of that progress, China is one of the only countries that’s actively and continually developing superior clean energy…they’re hoping to be able to peak their emissions by the mid 2030s I think”, Tommy said.
“But they’re the only place that’s looking close. And when you’re rid of the world’s biggest economies doing it, it’s a way bigger deal than, let’s say, Ireland doing it”.
The mitigation of the effects of climate change is entering a critical stage, wherein, countries are seeing the detriment of their lack of progress.
The amount of time to meet the Paris Agreement limits is approaching, and if countries fall short, many including Ireland may have to pay billions in tax, and that will be a big hit to a country sustainability wise and economically speaking.
Image Credit: WGI World