Professor John Sweeney:

I will be very brief because I know my colleagues want to comment on this as well. We should remind ourselves that net zero and not climate neutrality is our obligation to the EU in terms of our 2050 commitment. We are obliged to go to that particular criterion to avoid the kinds of fines and problems we have seen in the media over the past few months.

Denmark is chairing the European Council at the moment and is part of the Commission's proposals to move to a 90% reduction for the EU by 2040, which is part of the period encompassing the period we are deliberating on today. To position Ireland to cope with a new effort-sharing arrangement that will come into play, it is very important we do get the budgets right on this occasion. It is also very important we do not fall into the trap of kicking the can down the road from our existing commitments to finalise the sectoral emissions ceilings, which have not been finalised for a long time. We need that land use report to come out. We have seen it stalled for a matter of years and it is essential to inform our discussions, to make sure that the right decisions are made, that we have the full background for that.