Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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On a point related to Senator Higgins's final question, if the timeframe for the implementation of the directive from Europe is 2027, and our national legislation, in the form of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, has enshrined within it the objective of reducing emissions by 51% by 2030, and the directive also allows for the accounting of embodied emissions, which is something we have not done up to now, will that mean we will be playing with different numbers in 2027? The witnesses can correct me if I am wrong on this point. We are dealing now with approximately 67 megatonnes in this context. Through the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, inventory, we are trying to reduce that figure to 32 megatonnes or 33 megatonnes. If we change the accounting system, however, by including embodied carbon emissions, which are significant across our society, are we going to find ourselves in an extremely difficult place?