Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
COP27: Discussion
Mr. Jerry McEvilly:
On whether this committee doing enough, it is extremely welcome that we are in here and I thank the committee for this opportunity. I would almost put the question another way and ask whether other committees are doing enough. One of the biggest challenges within the Oireachtas is this committee is continuously seen as the only avenue, forum or discussion space for all climate action, which as we all know spans across every single sector. Without going into specifics, we have seen that other committees have produced recommendations that are entirely not consistent with our climate obligations. I would challenge the Oireachtas on this point. Perhaps the Deputies and Senators can raise this with their party colleagues. I am sure we would like to raise some of these issues in other forums, whether it is in the committee on foreign affairs or on finance. On what this committee can do, it would be helpful if we could perhaps come in again after the COP and give our analysis. We could also consider other international aspects of climate, climate finance and energy security.