Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Conference of the Parties, COP, 25: Discussion

Photo of Alice-Mary HigginsAlice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all those who gave presentations and wish those travelling to the COP well. I had the opportunity to go with Trócaire to the 2007-8 COPs and I know the huge amount of work that civil society puts into shaping and trying to make these debates as constructive as possible. I commend it on that.

I want to focus on some of the cross-cutting themes that are emerging, starting with finance.

Professor John FitzGerald of the Climate Change Advisory Council appeared before the committee a couple of weeks ago and was asked about the logic behind the carbon tax and an increase in carbon pricing in Ireland. While there is much discussion of lifestyle, the economic logic is that of externalities and the idea that there are significant costs to fossil fuels which are being absorbed by society and the environment and are not reflected in their price. I and other members of the committee have made the case that, surely, on that basis, every penny gathered in carbon tax should be addressed towards mitigation or adaptation rather than simply ring-fencing the increase. It is a small issue but it is tied to the wider principle that the polluter pays.

Irish Aid has some very good practices in respect of grants, empowerment and the quality of what is done on a wider scale as well as in regard to climate. It is clear that the scale is very low and that aid is not the right frame for much of this. Professor Sweeney referred to the Green Climate Fund. Loss and damage finance could also be of particular assistance to the small island nations which Ireland has spoken about championing. They have significant concerns because in some cases they are looking at the end of entire cities, towns or communities which they know will be flooded. The impacts are already being felt. In some cases, this is about replanning rather than taking preventative or adaptive measures. I refer to new additional finance and the Green Climate Fund. The block of developed countries and the European Union need to support technology transfer in the talks as well as the issues of public-public partnership and co-operation. We need action to be scaled up quite quickly, but I am concerned that in many cases we are waiting for the private sector which may bring forward patents, intellectual property and other solution. Ireland could champion the use of technology transfer.

The testimony of the witnesses has shown that this is a collective challenge and that our collective energy security depends on action. One of the features of the climate change conference is that issues can be examined, particularly offsetting. Ireland seems to be very confident that it has offsetting credits, but creative accounting may be an issue. On offsetting and the ethics of offsetting, reference was made to forestry, which has been the subject of several meetings of the committee. We have looked at issues such as how to avoid causing ecological damage in the process of capturing carbon with regard to the offsetting mechanisms of the REDD scheme.

How will upstream costs and the issue which will become more pressing of major actors such as the United States potentially pulling out of the climate agreement affect the debate? What position should Ireland take on the issue of upstream costs? We know there are proposals for carbon tax on imports within the European Union. It is linked to the idea of non-territorial costs.

On trade agreements, the Paris targets were incorporated in the EU-Japan trade agreement but Japan is pursuing coal exploration in Bangladesh. I ask the witnesses to address such extraterritorial issues and how we can ensure that the various elements can be linked and monitored, as well as the other aspects of our international relations. Does the conference offer a chance to put brakes on such actions?

Does Professor Sweeney see the potential for increased ambition regarding non-carbon greenhouse gases, specifically methane which has been the subject of debate and has a shorter-term impact. Is there potential for additional or further collective action in that regard?

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