Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The four elements believed essential to life are earth, air, fire and water. It seems that human actions and inaction have damaged all these elements, especially over the past 150 years. We have seen the earth exploited through increased cultivation of our land, destruction of our forests and the increased use of landfill to dump our rubbish.

We have seen a marked decline in our air quality, especially in increased CO2 levels in our atmosphere and greater levels of all types of pollution in the air we breathe, leading to greater respiratory diseases in all, but especially in our children. Ireland has been part of this explosion in increasing CO2 levels on the planet. We have all seen the results of climate change in our use of fire, especially in our use of the internal combustion engine and the burning of fossil fuels to create energy to power our homes and industrial production.

As for water, we are all aware of increased sea levels; more frequent flooding of our towns and homes; more violent climatic storms; and pollution of our drinking water, along with the quality of water in our rivers and seas. Over the past five years, Ireland has experienced its wettest winter and hottest summer on record. We had the stormiest winter in 147 years and our first taste of a near-intact Atlantic hurricane. We are now examining and constructing nearly 100 flood protection projects throughout the country to protect our towns and cities from these climatic events.

The past ten years in Ireland have been the wettest ten years in the last 300 years, with average rainfall rising from 912 mm in 1971 to 1,224 mm in 2018. The scientists have been telling us for many decades that if we continue on this path, we, the human race, along with all other forms of life on earth will self-destruct over the next century. In fact, they say we have to reverse engines if our children and grandchildren are to survive and it is for them we must take the right steps to protect human life and property.

In this climate action plan, Ireland must take its place among the nations of the world to take the corrective steps to protect all of us. To put it simply, we need to reverse the increased carbon we created over the past 70 years in the next 30 years, before 2050. To correct this and to put us back on the best path to restoring our climate, the scientists have set out many strategies for us as a world community to take. While some of these are seen as dramatic and harsh, there is no doubt we will have to take numerous small and many large steps for the good of mankind and our environment.

The main changes would seem to be in the use of carbon fuels and energy to provide heat, light, transport and the production of consumer, industrial and food products. This plan is aimed at securing our future by cutting emissions, creating green jobs and protecting people and the planet. This plan commits Ireland to halving our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050, at the latest. It commits us to creating thousands of jobs in the green economy, by investing in areas such as offshore wind, forestry and cutting-edge agriculture.

I am proud to say County Clare is already planning to play a major role in providing offshore wind energy, with two major projects planned off the coast of the county, one by ESB International in its Green Atlantic project and the other is by Simply Blue Group in partnership with Shell. The ESB project is also planning a facility for the production of green hydrogen fuel, with a view to exporting the fuel from the deep water berth at the Moneypoint facility in the Shannon Estuary. The development of these projects should provide more power than the output of the coal-burning Moneypoint station, which was once producing 45% of Ireland's electricity requirements.

This is a good example of how County Clare is making a major contribution in transforming from the old technology to the new green economy and the opportunities it can bring to all of us. This plan tells us that all citizens, communities and business will have a role to play. Government will support the changes through the €165 billion national development plan, which includes funding for retrofitting our homes, building new public transport, reskilling workers and supporting a just transition.

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