Mr. Simon Murtagh:

I have already approached members of this committee on a wider accountability structure on the programme for Government targets, which has a nominal target of a 7% decrease in emissions each year. What the Chairman has described is not what we see in our polls or even in the local community. Oxfam Ireland is based in Ringsend and there is a huge willingness to engage on issues like district heating or retrofitting. There is a real appetite for that in the community. There is also a very quick understanding of the national and global injustices and inequalities that come with this issue. Oxfam has used the statistic more than anyone else that the richest 1% of the world's population is responsible for twice the emissions of the bottom half of humanity which is the 4 billion people who contribute very little to emissions. We have seen that research reflected in Ireland where the top 10% is responsible for more than 50% of the emissions. That is why Oxfam promotes ideas like windfall and wealth taxes to address that inequality. We have seen in our polling a sense of despondency as people rate climate change at the top of their agenda but feel a sense of powerlessness. That is why I have approached Members like Deputy Whitmore to see if we could generate a flow of questions from local communities on what happens at a local level and that information could be fed to this committee and we could get responses from the Government on those issues.

Finally, on the question of inequality, many of the members will know of the French economist Thomas Piketty. He and another French researcher have produced a book titled The Elephant Curve of Global Inequality and Growth, which shows on the curve that climate guilt is sometimes an issue. It shows that from 1990 to more or less the present working class and middle class people in rich countries have reduced their emissions so created the bottom part of the curve. However, where the curve rises again like an elephant's trunk is the emissions of the super rich and extremely wealthy. That is not just in terms of their luxury jets and holiday homes but also in their investments in fossil fuel industries and so on. It is a question of having justice at that level at both the level of consumption and investment.