Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending. I was delighted to request that they come in before the Paris conference. I think they should come back in January to give us their analysis of what happens there. The holy alliance of the Pope and the Pentagon says this is one of the most important issues facing the world and the Pentagon says climate change is on a par with the threat of terrorism. We witnessed the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris last week. Between 1970 and 2010 half the mammals, birds and reptiles on the planet have disappeared. That is serious. It is very difficult to highlight to the public the enormity of this issue. It is bigger than the threat of nuclear warfare. While humanity had to prevent the latter from happening, it must also prevent what is happening in terms of climate change.

The witnesses asked about ending the use of fossil fuels by 2050 but there are silent actors who will try to prevent that from happening because people are making massive sums of money out of such fuels. How can we prevent those actors lobbying in Washington and Brussels to prevent what needs to be done? Our guests outlined the consequences of that to which I refer, saying that this is the world’s life support system and that there is a threat to life involved. It is not just a question of climate change. Life expectancy in China has dropped by five years because of air pollution. According to an article in today’s Irish Independent, if this is not checked, an extra 25,000 will die because of climate change. Some articles about the Paris conference made the point that it will decide who lives and who dies. It is not a question of being optimistic or pessimistic but determined. The National Geographic Society has joined the Pope and the Pentagon in saying this is what needs to be done. The 2% target the witnesses have outlined means that we go into the law of unforeseen outcomes but what will happen is highly predictable. Once beyond the tipping point, there is no going back. It is a long way to 2050 to reach that target.

There are things Ireland can do, particularly in respect of farming. In a presentation to this committee, Mr. Eamonn Ryan said 80% of fossil fuels that we know of today must stay in the ground. Given that people make billions of dollars out of the oil industry, it will take a serious effort to keep that in the ground. That analysis must be done. This committee should reflect and in January learn what happened in Paris. Copenhagen was not good enough and we have to ensure this is top of this committee’s agenda because it affects us all.

Agriculture creates a huge emissions problem for Ireland but we are not turning it into something positive. In other countries the emissions are used to generate electricity and energy. That is where we should put our money, instead of wasting it on carbon credits and wind farms - a matter on which we could have another debate - and make the emissions an income generator.