Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I bid the witnesses a good afternoon on this fine day. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to engage with them again. I have a couple of observations and questions to put to the witnesses. I will start with Mr. Sadlier. He should please not think that this is anything to do with him personally. It is just that a couple of statements in his presentation struck me. One such statement was: "The changing climate is making people's right to food impossible to realise." If that does not hit home, I am not sure what will. He also stated: "Poverty makes her vulnerable, but climate change is affecting her right to health". That is a stark warning from Sierra Leone. I was following the proceedings from COP26 this morning. Mr. Sadlier referred to the lack of a carbon footprint in Sierra Leone. It is not the only country that does not have a carbon footprint, but it is suffering hugely because of the carbon footprint and actions of others and climate change in total.

A contributor mentioned the conflict over scarce resources. What effect is that having in the countries in which the witnesses work on the political, health and education systems and what is the societal impact of the conflict over scarce resources? I agree with what Deputy Brady said earlier. We need actions not words. That is what I hear when I speak to the younger members of my constituency in Longford-Westmeath. It is actions not words that they want. What does that look like from the perspective of the witnesses? Is there a timescale that the witnesses could put on this, whereby the impact of the failure to act now could be reversed? I understand the point about the coping capacity that is affected by the drought but that simply is not good enough. Every country should continue to grow, develop and strengthen itself. If what we are speaking about is a country's ability to cope, then the bar is set very low for us as politicians and legislators to put solutions in place. Time is not on our side. It is getting very close to the tipping point and where the bar that will be set for developing countries is a level of coping as opposed to a level of strengthening and developing.