Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

You are right, Chair, that there are so many interesting questions arising from this discussion already. Deputy Cronin's framing of this is really useful, and I think it would be useful if that were the framing at EU level. We should start mentioning green hydrogen every time we mention hydrogen. One of my concerns relates to the issue of green hydrogen and the important role hydrogen can plan as a supplement and a support to electrification. The area that electrification may not be able to reach through green hydrogen has been muddied a little by placing it in the hydrogen strategy. As for the proposed new body, the European network of network operators for hydrogen, ENNOH, the concern is that green hydrogen may end up being a smaller player within that new network and that many of the oil and gas representative organisations will still be there. I am interested in that push towards the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, to which Ireland has signed up, and the EU and US methane pledge. Those are two really significant signals that Ireland sent as to where we stand on an exit from gas, recognising it as a fossil fuel. How are those commitments Ireland has made factoring into the positions we are taking in the negotiations on these matters?

Could the witnesses comment on the infrastructure surrounding gas? I am concerned that the EU directives as shaped at present still prolong that infrastructure. Could the witnesses comment on such ideas as the banning of venting and flaring, which has been proposed, mandatory leak detection and repair and some of the other mitigation measures surrounding gas? The problem is that when that infrastructure is kept in place, there is the challenge of decommissioning it.

Could the witnesses comment on the Energy Charter Treaty? The European Parliament, I think just last week, produced yet another really strong opinion expressing concern about the treaty. The concern is that if, in full knowledge of climate impacts and of what the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, is telling us, that is, that we need to have exited from gas as a fossil fuel totally by 2035, if not 2030, we will create new strategies that will still lock that in and create hostages to fortune under the Energy Charter Treaty at the exact same time as Europe is trying to lessen the impact of the treaty. We have had environmental policies come up against the treaty, and I am worried that if we create new environmental policies that embed the use of gas, we will make it extremely hard for countries to then exit from gas.

Could the witnesses comment on those matters? I referred to the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, the EU-US methane pledge, the Energy Charter Treaty and the dangers of a lock-in of gas there that would make policy choices down the line harder. I also asked a question about the mechanics, the decommissioning, the fluting and all those damaging aspects of the infrastructure.