Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following:“ “baseline” means the aggregate amount of—

(a) net emissions of carbon dioxide for 1990, and

(b) net emissions of each of the greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide for the year that is the baseline year for that gas;

“baseline years” for greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide are—

(a) for methane, 1990,

(b) for nitrous oxide, 1990,

(c) for hydrofluorocarbons, 1995,

(d) for perfluorocarbons, 1995,

(e) for sulphur hexafluoride, 1995;”.

There is no reference to any baseline years for carbon dioxide or any other greenhouse gas. The years proposed for the baselines in this amendment are highly ambitious but that is what we should be trying to achieve in this legislation. With regard to amendments Nos. 2 and 6, which amendments I will not speak to, it seems strange that by not including emissions targets, we may actually be costing the State money. People will be reading the deliberations of this committee in time and will be making that very argument and wondering how the alternative argument could be made.