Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their presentations. The finance for funding climate change is talked about a lot, but there is very little discourse on divestment from fossil fuels and exploitative industries.

For example, the savings, insurance policies and pensions of millions of people throughout the world amount to trillions of euro. Let us concentrate on Ireland, however. How can we collectively make arrangements so that ordinary people can compel companies not to use their money for planetary destruction and unethical practices? People who have pay-related social insurance, PRSI, should have an option but only one company in Ireland operates on ethical standards. Some years ago, it was possible, through the unions, to request that payments not go to the armaments industry, etc. Something like that has to happen on a collective level, because leaving such decisions to individuals will ensure nothing will happen. We need to roll out such options so that it becomes popular policy to divest from these types of sectors. I would like to hear any reflections or thoughts on that issue.

Exceptional weather events as a result of climate change are forcing the evacuation and migration of thousands of people from the global south towards the global north. That phenomenon is colliding with immigration policies in developed countries, including what has been happening recently in Ireland. People who seek to restrict immigration may, or may be perceived to be, also deniers of climate change. Such a cohort exists. How can we best provide education about those colliding forces and bring people along with us? People educated about climate action will be able to recognise that action on climate change will also ensure a diminution of enforced migration.

Gender equality is one of the cross-cutting topics of COP. I am interested in hearing more about the gender action plan and any contribution Ireland has made or plans to make to that theme. I also wonder about the role played by OPEC and the whole universe of the oil industry. Will Professor Sweeney outline the role of OPEC as a member of COP and will he clarify for us how many of the 15 members of OPEC have signed climate pledges? My next question concerns health and the overseas development assistance programmes we fund in health and education. Health is especially going to be impacted, with many resulting premature deaths. We are experiencing that here already, as was mentioned, and figure of 1,100 was the last statistic published in 2016. The impact of health effects is seven times greater in developing countries.

What is the genuine involvement of governments and agencies? They seem to direct all their efforts, energy and finance towards trying to find loopholes and redefining all of the articles set out. That seems to be the prime focus, instead of holding their hands up and taking an honest approach. It is like the emperor's new clothes. Perhaps honesty may be a bit too much to expect from politicians all of the time. I refer to facile interpretations of how to get out of doing something as opposed to being heartily involved in efforts to do something about climate change. I do not know if Professor Sweeney agrees with my perspective, but it seems that we are always looking for loopholes. We are buying more carbon credits, losing the run of ourselves and not tackling the problem.