Mr. Niall McLoughlin:

Russia's invasion and the consequential food and energy crises will be the undertone of this year's COP, antagonising the ever-present issue of climate change. Energy acceleration is key to energy security, not fossil fuels, especially for Europe. However, increasingly, countries are being faced with difficult choices in this space. Overall emissions are not increasing. Long term trends see decreases and this accelerated shift needs to be maintained. The geopolitical situation we are facing forces us to reassess how we achieve our longer term transition to climate neutrality, which is not only essential to our environment but is also key to our growth strategy. The path to zero is predicated among other things on ample availability of affordable gas, and that is now a thing of the past. This is a moment to break through rather than backslide, particularly on renewables and energy efficiency on coal phase-out to peak gas earlier than we would have without the war.

The question facing us is whether we can create a public debate and public awareness around COP. On fossil fuel language, for instance, can we create positive messages on renewables? All parties and governments must make short-term compromises on energy. Ireland and the EU are committed to adhering to our emissions cap and carbon budgets. Most important is that overall emissions do not increase. As I said, there is a long-term trend that can see a decrease.

We recognise that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has upended global politics and the market. This is first and foremost a humanitarian tragedy which also has profound effects on the price and security of energy and food globally. High volatile oil and gas prices are now driving inflation and the cost-of-living crisis throughout the world, and are exposing the true cost of our dependency on oil and gas as never before. Governments have a responsibility to ensure reliable and affordable energy services for their populations and their economies. We believe the best way to deliver this while creating jobs and lowering the long-term cost of energy is to increase massively investment in energy efficiency, renewable energy and the resilience and flexibility of our energy systems.

Ireland stands firmly for that in the forthcoming negotiations on climate and energy security.

We are not in favour governments turning off the taps overnight. We accept that there are limited increases in production from the existing oil and gas capacity and that might be necessary in the current context but certainly issuing new oil and gas licences for fields that take years to come online will do nothing do solve the current crisis. In fact, the contrary is the case. Decisions carry a long-term risk of stranded assets and carbon lock-in. Leadership on a managed phase-out of fossil fuels and our vision of a world beyond oil and gas, which was amplified by our membership of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance last year, is urgently needed. Ahead of COP, developed countries with greater financial and technical capacity must really lead the way on this and support developing countries in their transition.