Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 6, to delete lines 31 to 33 and substitute the following: "'climate neutral economy' means a sustainable economy and society where greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of greenhouse gases by nature based solutions with no reliance on the purchase of carbon credits, off-sets or other market based mechanisms or unproven technological capture and storage techniques;".

This amendment deals with a really important issue on which we want to put some focus. The measures set out in the Bill rely for their implementation on speculative technology and there is no definitive statement that we will totally remove carbon. The provisions are based on the expectation that, some time in the future, we will have technology that enables us to capture carbon, as well as using offsets and other market-based mechanisms. That does not allow for an absolute commitment to reduce our emissions and remove carbon.

Our amendment places an emphasis on nature-based solutions, with no reliance on the purchase of carbon credits, offsets and other market-based mechanisms, or carbon capture and storage technology that is unproven as yet. Many people are saying such technologies will be the way to go in the future, but we do not have the technology now. We can only commit ourselves to what is currently possible. Something that is speculative and twice removed from us is not sufficient and does not make this a robust Bill. Moreover, the idea that we can purchase our way out of this crisis makes a nonsense of our commitment to reducing our emissions. That is what this amendment seeks to address.