Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

3 o’clock

The Climate Change Advisory Council has warned that Ireland is unlikely to meet the targets of its first carbon budget for the period from 2021 to 2025. That will make meeting our climate targets after 2025 so much more difficult because there will be an awful lot of work and catching-up to do. That means Ireland now faces the prospect of multibillion euro fines under compliance costs applied by the European Union from 2030 onwards. While this Government excels at climate rhetoric, we do not, unfortunately, see good enough climate action. The reality is we are running out of time and we need climate action that is ambitious enough to meet the scale of the work we have to do. We really cannot do nothing. Nothing is not an option. Not doing enough is also not an option for us. Will the Minister therefore outline what changes the Government will make to change the trajectory it is on, which would mean that it would fail to meet its climate targets for 2025?

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