Ms Cliona Sharkey:

Thankfully, in recent months, thanks to the political leadership from a number of EU member states, the European Council has requested the European Commission to produce a new EU long-term climate strategy in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Let us be in no doubt that this is the beginning of a necessary process to increase the EU’s collective ambition. In this context, it is also worth recalling that the Paris Agreement itself contains a so-called ratchet mechanism, which requires all parties to regularly increase their ambition and action. Ireland’s obligations to reduce emissions are only going in one direction and the pressure to increase short-term ambition is set to increase.

On another positive note, energy system modellers in UCC have recently published a study on options for bringing Ireland’s energy system transition into line with a global pathway aligned with the Paris Agreement. Critically, they highlight that short-term national mitigation ambition needs to increase to play this role in meeting the Paris Agreement goals. Based on their modelling of Ireland’s energy system, they conclude that this is possible and can be done at significant cost, but while continuing to grow the economy. Importantly, like the EPA, they also highlight that delay makes the transition challenge all the greater and increases costs. While no one model can or should give us all the answers, their work, like that of others, clearly indicates that there is a need for significantly greater ambition if Ireland is to do its fair share to contribute to deliver on the Paris Agreement and that this greater ambition is possible.

The Paris Agreement was a diplomatic triumph and a testimony to what political leadership can do. National and international experts are telling us that, while difficult, a Paris-aligned transition is possible, including here in Ireland. Political leadership is what will decide whether we remain on the path we are on or whether we will join those who are increasing their ambition by embracing head on the challenges and opportunities of the inevitable transition, which is in all our interests, and out of respect to those for whom we know climate change impacts are already too much.

I mention the recommendations we would like to leave with the committee. Looking at the national mitigation plan, we propose action 1 which is to publish an updated analysis on transition pathway scenarios to 2050. We urge the committee to write to the Minister to ask him to ensure that the terms of reference for the commissioning of this analysis explicitly request only scenarios that are aligned with the Paris Agreement and can be justified as Ireland's fair share of a global effort to deliver on this agreement. This is to ensure that we do not have a repeat of the current situation with the national mitigation plan as it stands.

We are also sincerely grateful to all the parties and all elected representatives who are championing and supporting Bills that seek to increase climate policy ambition in Ireland over the past year, including the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill, and we urge the committee to see all of these Bills through to enactment as soon as possible.

The report and recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly provide a clear and highly legitimate basis for near-term policy developments that can increase ambition beyond that contained in the NMP in the short term. We urge the committee to establish a workplan as soon as possible to consider and provide a report to the Oireachtas on the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations on climate change.