Dr. Br?d Walsh:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to present today on behalf of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition. My central message is that this is the critical decade for international climate action and time is not on our side. Ireland must contribute bold and fast actions to the global effort to tackle the climate crisis and COP27 must demonstrate higher ambition to contain the substantial risks associated with warming beyond 1.5°C.

We are already at 1.2°C of warming. The national pledges at COP26 last year were not sufficient and now countries must ratchet up their pledges before COP27, keeping in mind two important points. First, 1.5°C is still feasible but global emissions must peak immediately, that is, by 2025 at the latest, reduce by half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. According to the UN Emissions Gap Report that was published recently, globally we need three times more mitigation than is currently planned in order to reach a 1.5°C pathway by 2030. The COP27 negotiations must make progress in closing the emissions gap by ramping up the ambition of those nationally determined contributions through the mitigation work programme, setting ambitious 2030 targets, providing clarity on what limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C means for the remaining global carbon budget, emissions reductions and fossil fuel phase-out targets.

Wealthy high-emitting countries such as Ireland must cut emissions more steeply and reach net zero as quickly as possible and before 2050. Ireland has already used approximately 23.5% of the emissions allowance for the first carbon budget in 2021 alone according to the recent annual review by the Climate Change Advisory Council. The new climate action plan due next month must specify the implementation pathways for rapid delivery of new and already-committed-to measures to ensure immediate emissions reductions.

Looking to the post-2030 period, it is important the Climate Change Advisory Council carries out further analysis on the provisional third carbon budget to ensure the pathway and the timeline to net zero reflect climate justice and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

For Ireland to take a leadership role at COP27, the Government must deliver on its EU commitments and submit the long-term strategy before COP27 begins. The strategy is already approximately two and a half years late and the Commission recently issued Ireland with a formal notice for failure to submit. This strategy, together with the updated climate action plan, must set out bold and fast actions that Ireland will take to reach net zero as soon as possible.