Catherine Connolly criticises ‘deafening silence over normalisation of war’

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Transformative change to address the climate emergency is not happening fast enough, the President has said.

Catherine Connolly said the world “cannot continue to do business as usual” and called out “deafening silence” around the “normalisation of war”.

In an address to the DCU Climate Conference on Tuesday, Connolly said it had been seven years since the Dáil declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.

However, she said that: “In the seven years since the declaration, unfortunately we have seen report after report confirming that transformative change is certainly not happening at the scale and speed that is required.”

In particular, she referenced the European State of the Climate Report 2025, compiled by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service last month, which found that Europe is the fastest-warming continent and the impacts are already severe.

Tuesday’s event was the sixth annual conference of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society and was entitled “Holding the Line: Climate action in a time of crisis”.

Connolly’s address also noted research that the Atlantic jet stream is significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought, that 2026 could be the warmest year on record, and that sea temperatures are approaching the highest level ever.

Addressing the students and faculty of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society, she said they were a source of inspiration to her.

“Given these stark facts, your work and research are all the more important.

“Indeed, your institute is the first academic research centre in Ireland devoted to addressing climate change from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities.

This institute represents the holistic approach that is absolutely necessary if we are to address the existential threat posed by climate change.”

Connolly said “neither technological solutions” nor incremental change on their own will suffice in saving the planet”.

However, she added: “The positive news is that the solutions are there, and you have acknowledged that.

“Those solutions of themselves, however, will not be sufficient.

“There has to be a recognition that we cannot continue to do business as usual.”

Connolly said a vision for change required a paradigm shift centred on climate justice and “the audacity to constantly question self-serving narratives”.

She said: “Of course, the elephant in the room is the normalisation of war, which could not happen without the vast military industrial complex.”

She added: “We can’t get away from the fact that war, the normalisation of war and climate change are inextricably linked.

“The deafening silence around this issue, speaks volumes and must be called out by every single one of us.”