Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Marie Donnelly:

If I may, I will comment on that. I attended the Conference of the Parties, COP, in Egypt at the end of last year. I was a little disappointed because the commitment from, for example, China and India was lacking. The Deputy is right. Some measures have been taken. For example, China no longer supports the construction of coal-fired power stations outside of China, but it still supports their construction inside China. The people the Deputy spoke to were not wrong, but that does not give us an out. Just because other countries behave badly does not mean that we should as well. We should do what we know is right and continue encouraging, supporting and, indeed, pressuring all partners in the Paris Agreement to play their part through whatever measures are necessary so that, at the end of the day, we all have a climate and a world in which we can live.