James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Speaking on climate change is necessary but not futile. We all know that on issues of this nature actions speak louder than words because alarm bells are ringing across the world. We must wake up to the threat posed by climate change. Having seen the reality and the movie, we must now see concerted action. Concern among members of the public is growing as they become increasingly aware that they must modify their carbon footprints and take individual responsibility for the protection of our environment for generations to come.

Erratic and extreme weather conditions have become common in recent years. This year, Britain experienced the worst summertime floods in its history, leaving several people dead, 600 injured, requiring the evacuation of approximately 3,500 people from their devastated homes and swamping and destroying food crops. Ireland is not far behind Britain in this respect, having this year experienced the wettest summer and heaviest rainfall recorded in June and July since records began. At the same time, temperatures held to seasonal norms.

The Minister must significantly increase renewable energy sources, in particular, combined heat and power, CHP. In other countries in Europe, such as Finland and Denmark, significant percentages of heat demand are supplied by district heating systems and CHP stations, with 50% to 60% of homes supplied by district heating systems. Combined heat and power stations and district heating systems provide a wide range of benefits, including improved energy efficiencies of up to 50%, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, more efficient use of bio-fuels and space savings.

Converting the Lough Ree power station in my area of Lanesboro to combined heat and power and distributing the heat energy through a district heating system would make sense in today's energy conscious environment. Such a conversion could be replicated throughout this country. At Lanesboro, this would require converting the power station to a combined heat facility and building a network to distribute heat energy to residential, commercial and industrial users.

As I stated, combined heat and power and district heating are common in many countries across Europe. Finland and Denmark are two such countries which have significant percentages of their heat demand supplied by district heating systems and CHP stations. District heating, the most common heating system in Finland, is used in nearly all cities, towns and built-up areas. Some 2.5 million Finns live in homes heated by district heating. A wide range of benefits are gained from combined heat and power stations and district heating, including improved energy efficiency in the case of the former.

If rolled out, these technologies would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by distributing the heat produced in the generation of electricity to households and removing the need for these households to use fossil fuels for heating space and water. In addition to eliminating emissions from home boilers, a CHP station which centralises the generation of heat can more easily be operated on alternative bio-fuels that distribute these fuels to households. It would also improve air quality.

The recently published reports on climate change have identified beyond doubt the significant challenges facing us all in light of global warming. Ireland and particularly the Minister, who is at the helm on this issue, face a challenge to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions. The CHP system should be an important element of the Government's response to this challenge. Ireland can learn much from countries such as Finland and Denmark, which are leading in the implementation of CHP and district heating systems. Scientific evidence points to the need for urgent action on greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the short and medium term. The IPCC has indicated that in the longer term global emissions would need to be reduced by up to 70% or to 1990 levels.

Two of the world's top polluters, China and Japan, agreed to what is in essence a vague pact on climate change yesterday. Progress may seem small, but the pact will serve as a basis for negotiations at the UN meeting next month in Bali and should make it easier to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

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