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

The Deputy is right about the importance of using plain language. One would only be warming up with the likes of LDCs and SIDS. There could be a half an hour's worth of acronyms at a COP meeting. There is a difficulty in that the structures are really complex. Much of the problem is that the subjects being discussed are very science-orientated. That is a good thing because science is the bedrock of understanding, but sometimes the language hits the head rather than the heart. I recall that some years ago, we were looking at simple words like "mitigation" and "adaptation" and what they mean. In the case of "mitigation", we considered alternatives like "preparation", "protection" or some other word people would more readily understand. I agree with the Deputy on the point around language.

In terms of winning the public over to the scale of change we need to make, five or six governments in a row will have to be engaged in that effort rather than taking a stop-start approach, which would be very expensive. We are all going to have to think about these issues in the coming decades. There are simple rules, as I see it, in terms of winning over the public. First, it is important to start by asking people to help rather than telling them what to do. We must start by listening and admitting uncertainties. We do not know what all the technological solutions will be and how they may evolve. Even in terms of how climate change will affect us, we will only learn some of that, unfortunately, as events hit us. We must continue to be flexible in how we adapt to those events.

I take the Deputy's point about things seeming to be done over people's heads. This is a global problem and it requires a global structure and system to address it. COP summits are a big circus with huge trappings around them and one sometimes wonders whether they are really working. How do we get global agreement among 200 countries, ranging from Russia and Saudi Arabia to Vanuatu or the islands in the Caribbean? It is an incredible challenge and we need structures to achieve it. Going back to what I said at the very start, the former Senator, Jim Dooge, was responsible for some of those structures. From memory, his area of expertise was in exactly what the Deputy is talking about. He became interested in these issues because his knowledge was in the area of water systems. I cannot remember whether his focus was initially on Afghanistan or somewhere else, but it was on the situation of people who were suffering from acute poverty because of changing hydrology systems. He and others were responsible for setting up this complex system. It is far from ideal but I do not see the alternative. As a country, what we try to do and be good at is working within UN systems. It suits Ireland well as a proud member of the UN for many years to give our efforts to that. For all its failings, it is the only show in town and we have to make it work.