Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

This is not about forcing people to make sacrifices, it is about taking advantage of an international opportunity. Sweden's Minister for Sustainable Development has declared that a Sweden free of fossil fuels will present enormous advantages, not least by reducing the impact from fluctuations in oil prices. The report of the Climate Group, Carbon Down, Profits Up, demonstrates that the corporate world is seizing on the invisible frontier of profitability which energy efficiency represents. Will the Minister put it to the Taoiseach and the Cabinet that if we can get the NGOs into the partnership process and put in place a formula that will allow us to take advantage of climate change, there will be business opportunities, not the opposite? Will the NGOs be included in partnership?

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