Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy O'Malley for raising an appropriate, pertinent and opportune issue and, as always, for making an incisive contribution to the discussion. I am glad to have an opportunity to respond to the Stern report.

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change published by the British Government this week puts the global warming debate centre stage in economic terms and reminds all countries that the costs of inaction far outweigh the cost of tackling climate change now.

The review stresses that global climate change is an international problem and that the actions required to tackle the issue effectively must be multilateral. Any one country is only part of the problem. However, a sustained and effective collective response is necessary from all countries to avoid the worst effects of climate change in the future.

The review suggests that three elements of policy are required for an effective response. The first is carbon pricing, through taxation, emissions trading or regulation, so that people are faced with the full social costs of their actions. The aim should be to build a common global carbon price across countries and sectors. The second is technology policy, to drive the development and deployment at scale of a range of low-carbon and high-efficiency products. The third element is action to remove barriers to energy efficiency and to inform, educate and persuade individuals about what they can do to respond to climate change. A shared understanding of the nature of climate change and its consequences is critical in shaping behaviour, as well as in underpinning both national and international action.

Within the EU, Ireland is performing well in terms of greenhouse gas emissions relative to other member states and our position is by no means the worst in the EU. Ireland ranks mid-table with seven of the EU 15 further away from their Kyoto Protocol targets than us. Per capita emissions, while high, are not much higher than in many EU countries. Ireland's per capita carbon dioxide emissions were approximately 11 tonnes in 2004 compared to an EU 15 average of nine tonnes. Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg had higher per capita CO2 emissions than Ireland. Most importantly, Ireland has achieved a decoupling of its emissions from economic growth, so that while our emissions grew by 23% since 1990, our economy grew by almost 150%.

The challenge of global climate change is a critical element of the global and EU energy landscape, along with the backdrop of high energy demand and volatile oil and gas prices. The energy policies we adopt for the future must play a substantial role in Ireland's response to this issue. The principal policy options set out in the recent Green Paper on energy are designed to deliver a more sustainable energy future for Ireland. These are well aligned with the review of the national climate change strategy, Ireland's Pathway to Kyoto Compliance, published by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche. As part of an overall strategy for the energy sector, these principles stress the importance of increasing our use of renewable energy as the key to sustainability and future security of supply. We must also tackle energy demand itself through systematic energy efficiency strategies.

The energy Green Paper envisages an ambitious target of 30% of electricity produced by renewable energy by 2020. There are differing views on whether such a target is too much or too little, but it is proposed as a realistic ambition and one for which a solid foundation has been laid with the recently announced REFIT programme.

The Government intends that by 2020 the best commercial ocean energy technology should be Irish. Our ocean energy strategy is aimed to position us at the cutting edge of development.

Bio-fuels and biomass will play a major role by 2020, underpinned by the new bio-energy strategy that is led by the ministerial task force.

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