Mr. Oisín Coghlan:

I will highlight a few of the key points from the written submission that we made to the committee. The Environmental Pillar welcomes this landmark moment. Members of our network have campaigned for a climate law like the one passed in 2021 since 2007. However, we are now playing catch-up for a lost decade. The latest emissions figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, have our national emissions at 57.7 million tonnes in 2020. This figure is exactly the same as it was in 2011. The carbon budgeting process can help us with that catch-up and we have a few recommendations to make to the committee with regard to both carbon budgets and wider policy.

The committee should recommend that the Dáil and Seanad accept the first two carbon budgets as proposed by the Climate Change Advisory Council. However, the committee should ask the council to review its work on the third carbon budget before it is presented to become binding in 2025. The reasons for these recommendations, as well as the others that I will make briefly, is that the issue or principle of fairness needs to be central to Irish climate change policy and the carbon budgeting process. By this, we mean we need fairness between countries, that is, global climate justice, fairness between generations, namely, the older generations such as ours which did most to cause the problem and those who come after us, a fair and just transition to protect the vulnerable and fairness between sectors.

Every sector of society and the economy will have to do its fair share to reduce pollution but that is not the same as an equal share. Some sectors will have to move faster than others but every sector will have to reduce emissions drastically, starting now, and must get to zero or close to zero as fast as possible.

Based on these considerations, it is important to put on record that although they are very challenging, the 2030 target to halve emissions and the two carbon budgets the Climate Change Advisory Council has proposed to 2030 still do not amount to our fair share of the effort to fulfil the Paris Agreement. Ireland will continue to use more than our fair share of the remaining global carbon budget, consistent with 1.5°C of warming, for the rest of this decade. While the Environmental Pillar accepts the proposal from the Climate Change Advisory Council regarding the two carbon budgets to 2030, it leaves us feeling deeply uneasy.

The analysis by the United Nations is that in order to have a decent chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C, we need to cut global emissions more or less in half by 2030 and to near zero by 2050. However, that figure applies globally. Under any definition of climate justice, and according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, CBDR, rich countries like Ireland, the EU and the US should do more sooner. While we accept, however reluctantly, that it is probably impractical if not impossible for Ireland to reduce its emissions by more than 50% in nine years, it is important to recognise and acknowledge that we will still be adding to our debt, both carbon and moral debt, to those in the global south who have done the least to cause climate change and who are being hit first and hardest, as well as to younger and future generations who have done little or nothing to cause climate change and who have little or no power to stop it.

Given that reality, it is imperative that the Government step up Ireland's contributions to climate finance to help poor countries to adapt to the impacts of the climate change that cannot be avoided; become an advocate at EU level for the strongest possible climate change governance and climate action measures; and brook no argument from those voices who argue that Ireland should not have to reduce our emissions by 50% by 2050 or that their sector should somehow be exempt or specially treated. Cutting our pollution by 50% by 2030 is the least we have to do. It is a down payment, not a final payment, on our fair share of the efforts to achieve the Paris goals.

In particular, we urge the committee to request that the Climate Change Advisory Council review what Ireland's fair share of our effort under the Paris Agreement is and recommend to the Minister that he formally ask the council to do that. That is the least we must do to reflect the commitment to climate change in the climate law. Specifically, the council's indicative proposal for the third carbon budget from 2031 to 2035 does not seem compatible with climate justice. Having proposed a reduction of 8% to 2030, it seems that reduction percentages after that are lower and would suggest we will not get to zero until 2050. As the United Nations pointed out, that is too late for rich countries. Other countries are moving faster. We have time to revise this third budget. We ask the committee to urge the council to do that. I will briefly hand over to my colleague, Mr. St. Leger, to discuss forestry.