Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 October 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and COP26: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the impact of climate change, it seems that Ireland will be wetter and stormier in the north and west in particular. We could also have drier conditions in the south and east. We could have flooding and drought problems. Critical to the work the Government must do is the land use plan we committed to in the programme for Government. This involves looking not just at how we can mitigate emissions through land use but how we can develop forms of new forestry where we move away from those uplands I mentioned earlier where there might be monoculture clearfell forestry on peatland upland soils and bring forestry down. We probably need much more continuous cover close to nature and forest systems that help us manage floods. Such forests slow release water rather than have it running off quickly.

I mentioned the management of bogs and wetlands. This is going to be difficult because for 60 years, we have been telling farmers to drain the land and now we are going to tell them to block the drains and re-wet the land and we will have to pay farmers for that re-wetting. However, it can also have a benefit in terms of managing that flood system.

Critically, the advantage of switching our grassland management system away from single grass - typically perennial rye grass - using heavy quantities of fertiliser to a mixed-sward with clover and a range of different species is that there will be much lower nitrogen use, far lower greenhouse gas emissions, much deeper-rooted grass systems and much stronger and healthier microbial conditions in the soil. In addition, deep-rooted grass systems will survive and manage better in both heavy rain and drought conditions. There is a range of examples where nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change will help on the adaptation side.

I am nervous when I see some of the flood defence systems we are building at the moment, including on the River Dodder, which is a stunning river, full of wildlife. The flood management measures being used to date, to my mind, are missing the opportunity in terms of the use of natural systems as opposed to funnelling, culverting and building up. We have to protect local communities because there is nothing worse than a local community getting flooded. We have to design in protections against that. I do not wish to be critical of any individual or any individual project but what is happening now is over-engineering and overly expensive. We are missing some of the opportunities we would get from more naturally flood-based management systems. That would be very much site-specific, but it is my personal view.

With regard to climate finance and the various reasons for it, upfront is the climate just reason that those countries affected most should not have to pay the most. There are other reasons this makes real sense for us. The European economic plan, Fit for 55, is focussed on the green economy and going green. The US is doing something similar, and so too is China. All three are stating that they are matching their international investments with what they want to do in their domestic economies because that becomes self-reinforcing. This economic model is the one that develops and really takes off. That is a long-term and subjective reason, but it is a self-interest reason. If everyone is doing this transition, it will be easier for all of us to do it. There are protections that come with some of the added investment, particularly in climate finance and adaptation. It is a much better way of investing in terms of providing security for all concerned. Europe could build huge defence systems and military investment. In a world where climate events could see mass migration and real challenges and difficulties, it is far better to invest in the much more safe system such that we make it safe for people to stay in their own homes and to protect their own homes. That is a better investment in the long-term than is building a fortress-type Europe or USA in a climate changing world.

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