Dr. Cara Augustenborg:

I will try to sweep up the questions that have not been addressed. A question was asked about leadership at the Paris conference. The most surprising thing for me was the leadership shown by China in securing the agreement. Many people have credited China with making it happen at the 11th hour. When I have given public talks since I came back from Paris, I have said that we are in a unique situation as a transition generation. Just as we have witnessed the transition from paper to the Internet, we are now witnessing part of the transition from the fossil fuel-driven society that started with the industrial revolution to a society that relies completely on renewable energy. This provides an opportunity for leadership to be shown by everyone, including governmental and community interests. I see leadership happening at a number of levels. I see it as a big election issue, as suggested by Deputy Crowe. I know that Eamon Ryan has proposed a potential debate on this specific issue. This would allow people to show leadership on it.

The targets that will have to be met seem highly ambitious and in some ways impossible. We are making a lot of strides in energy, as I explained previously. Community ownership is part of that. We know that bioenergy is best used when combined heat and power plants are locally owned. People in places like Cloughjordan have demonstrated this by buying wood chip from local farmers, thereby keeping the money in the local economy, keeping the system closed and ensuring there is no dependence on foreign imports. There are opportunities we can build on. We can grow and expand out. There are opportunities for creative financing through credit unions. Communities could come together to invest in solar panels, etc.

I did not talk about transport because the transport sector has really not addressed greenhouse gas emission reductions. It has focused instead on reducing congestion. The development of the Grand Canal cycle path, which was led by the National Transport Authority, is an example of best practice. It shows where we should be going with cycling in this country. We need to get people out of their cars and onto safe cycle paths. We can also look at places like Sweden, which is replacing its entire bus fleet with vehicles powered by biofuels from ethanol. We could look at replacing our own bus fleet. I am aware that Dr. Jerry Murphy of University College Cork has done a great deal of research into how Ireland could replace its bus fleet with buses powered by livestock waste from slaughterhouses, etc. We have opportunities to look at examples of such changes.

It is much harder to reduce emissions from agriculture. The recent flooding showed that being narrowly focused on one sector of industry, such as beef or dairy, is putting farmers at risk with respect to future climate. It is going to get harder for them to do those kinds of things. We need to look at diversifying to protect us from those risks. I will give some examples. Opportunities exist in the agri-forestry sector, which allows farmers to plant trees while continuing to farm in other ways between those trees. We should encourage farmers to start contributing to the renewable energy market through solar and biomass schemes. This would give farmers an opportunity to diversify their income sources. A fantastic study, Green Plan Ireland, which has been published by Professor David Connolly in Denmark, shows that we could completely decarbonise our society by 2050 and create 100,000 new jobs in this country as a result. There are a number of co-benefits to making that transition too.

I will put my scientist's hat on for a minute while I reply to Deputy O'Sullivan's comments regarding the impacts on animal and plant life.