Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister on his first time at this committee in his new role. I also welcome his departmental officials.

As I understand it, a motion will come before the Dáil fairly soon to carry out this ratification process. We ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, so it is important that we should fulfil that to the letter, including the Doha Amendment. I am concerned that we are moving quickly towards 2020, which is just five short years away. We still have large steps to take to ensure that we will meet our international obligations, including our EU ones, given what we have signed up to.

I welcome the fact that Iceland and the EU are working together on this issue. As we have seen, climate change does not respect any borders so the more countries that can be brought into such agreements the better. I would encourage the Minister to use his good offices to achieve a consensus among as many states as possible in this regard.

As regards the 2050 climate change targets, a recent UN report showed alarming results concerning what is already happening and what is coming down the line. That report was backed up by a large body of scientific evidence. I have heard scientists describe the report as emanating from the most comprehensive and broad-based research that has ever been carried out on any project or to back up any case.

Only those who still believe the earth is flat, will deny that climate change is a problem. Anyone aged over 30, as a good few of us here are - I am over 40 and a bit more - can see that even in our lifetimes the climate has changed. Those are the facts of the matter.

The Taoiseach gave a great speech recently to a big international audience, which is grand. However, we are nearly four years into this Government's term and we need to see our climate change legislation. I know the Minister has been newly appointed and is not long in the door, but I hope he is committed to dealing with climate change. We tried to push the previous Minister along; promises were made but deadlines came and went. I know that the Minister cannot rush these things, however, because we have to get them right.

This committee carried out a large body of work in summer 2013 along with Professor John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth. A comprehensive report was produced as a result of that endeavour. We really need to move on this and, to that end, we want to get the relevant climate change legislation in place. I realise that there are issues concerning how one can divvy up the obligations for various sectors. There is a big issue concerning agriculture, not least because in some cases our agriculture is a lot more sustainable than agricultural practices in other countries. The value of our forestry must also be taken into account, as well as the fact that we have extensive grasslands. Those aspects must be considered carefully, but I welcome the fact that we are moving ahead to ratify the Doha Amendment.

Nonetheless, we need to introduce our own climate change legislation. The Taoiseach cannot preach fine words to international audiences if we are failing to put basic legislation in place to meet those obligations here at home.