Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I welcome the attendance of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I present the Climate Change Targets Bill 2005 in the understanding that it is in the interests of every Deputy and party in this House to address what is increasingly regarded as the most important and daunting challenge mankind has ever faced. The Green Party seeks to secure all-party agreement on the basic principles on which Ireland will address this challenge. These principles are glaringly clear. Ireland needs to set a long-term target for achieving the dramatic change the scientific community has indicated will be necessary to tackle climate change. We then need to make a clear commitment via annual, incremental reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to ensure we meet our long-term targets. We must embrace the new, low carbon future, rather than hide from it, as we and many other countries are currently doing.

The launch of the Bill coincides with the opening of negotiations in Montreal on the United Nations framework on climate change. While the talks are set to continue for several years, they will be crucial in determining what collective agreement can be reached by governments across the world to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. It is not an exaggeration to say the outcome of the negotiations, successful or otherwise, will determine the future of mankind. The importance of this debate is that Deputies have an opportunity to recognise the significance of climate change.

The evidence of how polluting activity by humans is producing climate change is presented in ever more stark forms, particularly by members of the scientific community. We need to express this evidence in language lay people can understand. We must be honest with people by recognising that climate change threatens the lives of our children and grandchildren. For many people around the world, this threat has already arrived. The poorest 2 billion people on the planet live in close proximity to nature, on which they are dependent for food, heating and homes. These people are increasingly vulnerable to changes in nature which take place as the climate changes. They do not have an easy escape and cannot buy their way out of the problem.

The World Health Organisation has already estimated that 150,000 people per annum are killed as a result of ongoing climate change and 10 million per annum are dislocated by creeping environmental degradation. We cannot ignore this reality. The longer term threats are much more dramatic. Glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating. For example, the glacier from which Edmund Hillary set out to reach Mount Everest has shrunk by three miles since he made his climb. This could be construed as a simple curiosity were it not for the fact that the lives of hundreds of millions of people in China and the Indian sub-continent are dependent on the waters from the Himalayan glaciers which are threatened by further glacial retreat.

The annual 8% decline in the Arctic ice shield could also provide amazing curiosities. For example, this summer, for the first time, a boat was able to sail to the North Pole without the assistance of an ice breaker. If, however, we allow climate change to become a catastrophic runaway event, it will no longer be a curiosity but a threat to our existence. In such circumstances, we will be exposed to flooding or the potential that the Gulf Stream will be switched off. The sooner we recognise this threat and its only solution — immediate and radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions — the better. To achieve this, we must initiate the measures set out in the Bill.

Sections 2 and 3 contain simple provisions requiring Ireland to take part in international negotiations. The Bill is part of a process under which we would send the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to Montreal to deliver a message that Ireland is willing to try to lead the international community and that it recognises that, as one of the most polluting countries in the world on a per capita basis, it has an obligation to address climate change. In advance of the negotiations, Ireland must indicate a willingness to make its contribution and change its ways. These sections also set out Ireland's willingness to make commitments at international negotiations on the basis that all countries participate and the outcome is fair and equitable.

Section 4 sets out in greater detail how Ireland would make reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This would be achieved not only through trading mechanisms but also through meaningful reductions in energy use.

Section 5 sets out some of the targets which have secured widespread support among the scientific community. In spring this year European Heads of Government agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% to 30% by 2020. In addition, European environment ministers have agreed to reduce our emissions by 60% to 80% by 2050, the figures required to achieve an increase of no more than 2° Celsius in global climate change.

Sections 6 and 7 set out the incremental approach to achieving these reductions. They provide that the Minister and his colleagues, the Ministers for Finance and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, would be required to report to the House on Ireland's success or otherwise in achieving the annual, gradual targets required of us. It also provides for the development of a three-year plan which would be revised and must be voted upon in the House as the international negotiations proceed. This is a practical approach to the issue of greenhouse gas emissions which must be followed.

My introductory comments will be followed by Deputy Cuffe who will address some of the solutions Ireland could adopt. Addressing climate change is not a wholly negative undertaking, particularly for Ireland with its mild climate and boundless renewable resources. We have an opportunity to make a positive switch and Deputy Boyle will discuss some of the financial instruments which could help us do so. Deputy Gogarty will address transport issues tomorrow, while Deputy Gormley will discuss what will be the visible consequences of failure to react to the problem of climate change. Our party leader, Deputy Sargent, will round off the debate.

I ask the Minister and all other parties to support the Bill. It matters not whether one is a socialist or capitalist, of the left or right or seated on the Opposition or Government benches. Unless politicians start to be honest and provide real leadership by informing people that we need long-term change based on set targets and incremental changes, we will not succeed in addressing the issue of climate change. I commend the Bill to the House.

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