Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the speakers that I am having to come and go from the Chamber but I was very interested in their presentations on this issue. I campaigned with Trócaire on climate change in 2008 when a group of young activists, who are no longer young, were demanding action. Even then, climate change was not new and there were huge impacts on many parts of the world and many communities were seeing their futures destroyed.

It is good that there is momentum now and climate change is centre stage in discussions. Europe Day is about Europe and the real test will be if Europe will place the sustainable development goals and climate change actions at the centre of the new five-year European strategy. Will they also be at the centre of the multiannual financial framework, the European budget? Simply putting climate action front and centre for photos at the moment will not be enough.

The European Investment Bank put €11 billion into fossil fuels between 2007 and 2013. The European climate action fund is proposed to be €5 billion. I want people to discuss the balance between where we invest and how we can stop taking backward steps.

One of the speakers mentioned the LNG terminal which is an example of something that was funded by European investment funding. How do we get that joined up? It comes down to public participation.

I am passionate about new forms of participation and we need them. I like the idea of town hall meetings, I think they are important, and I also think people should be looking at their local authority's development plans and putting in opinions. That is important. It is crucial to ask how we ensure the public discussion does not stay in a silo as a separate discussion on climate, but rather bring climate action into the economic discussion around budgets. We need to ensure that closed-door economic decisions such as trade agreements and procurement are joined up and informed by climate considerations. We need not to have any backward steps. I would like to hear the comments of the speakers on that matter.

Another consideration is the comparative roles of the public and private sectors which was touched on by some of the speakers. For example, it might be tempting to support the electric car industry because it has the potential to make profit whereas public transport might not, but public transport might lead us to make much greater progress much more quickly. There will be things that will cost money and will not necessarily be profitable but, if we do not take the action now, the cost will be borne elsewhere in the world and by those most vulnerable to climate change.

That brings us to the question of carbon pricing. I am on the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection and am very passionate about just transition. We must not wait for people to become redundant from sectors that are no longer sustainable but need to talk to them while they are still employed about their plans for the future. I have been arguing for that in the context of just transition. We must manage the pragmatic issues around just transition in Ireland and look to climate justice on a global level so we not only address the concerns in Ireland but look to climate justice for other parts of the world.

The price of carbon is artificially low and needs to be higher. The price has driven an unsustainable global development model. Do we make social protection payments? Fuel poverty payments will get us to a certain level but, as was rightly said, many people on low incomes will not be caught by the fuel supplement. How do we recognise and ensure that industry is reflecting the price of carbon and does not have artificially deflated prices because of artificially deflated carbon costs while ensuring that individuals are not taking the worst of the impacts? Those are the key questions. Perhaps we should look at bans, moratoriums and levies on sectors.

I will conclude because I want to hear the responses of the speakers. It comes back to the question of business as usual. Where do we frontload? Can we, and should we, balance keeping interests aligned while ensuring that we do not wait for certain climate actions to become profitable?We have to frontload it. All of the speakers had practical thoughts on how we do that.

My key questions relate to climate justice, just transition, the public and private spheres and how to ensure this is an economic transformation as well as a social movement.