Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I wish to share my time with Deputy Cuffe.

This is one of the last opportunities the House will have to discuss this issue before the Irish Government takes its place among the nations at Copenhagen. The events of the past ten days have been a painful reminder of the impact climate change will have on our country and, while some people might debate whether climate change or poor planning is at fault, the fact is that we are faced with major climate change. Nobody can deny that we will experience such events on a more regular basis, with homes and businesses threatened, rivers bursting their banks and perhaps even lives endangered. The climate change expert Professor John Sweeney recently said that rainfall levels previously seen once every 30 years will become, by the mid-21st century, a one-in-ten-year event. In this context I welcome the launch by my colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, and Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, of the statutory planning guidelines, The Planning System and Flood Risk Management. There can be no denying the magnitude of the challenge facing the world in the coming weeks at Copenhagen. Let us hope we have success in the years ahead in combating climate change.

The world needs, collectively, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% to 90% by 2050. We need to be flexible with these targets in the event that the precipice of a temperature increase of more than 2°C is reached. We need a global deal that encompasses the five pillars of mitigation, adaptation, technology, financing and capacity building, and recognises the disproportionate effects of climate change on the developing world and the challenges, such as poverty and lack of economic development, faced by such countries.

The issue of economic development leads me to a central point in the debate on climate change. We are facing a challenge not just to prevent the weather from becoming a monster but also to change our economic order. In a world approaching peak oil and in which the current means of production are potentially fatal to the planet, we need an economic order that addresses the problems not only of capitalism but also of what is called resourcism. We need sustainability. This goes to the heart of energy policy, planning, transport, economic development and the distribution of wealth. Economic growth, consumption and expansion for the sake of it cannot endure much longer. I hope a deal is reached in Copenhagen. If not, we will need to think hard about where we are going with our globally accepted and binding targets. There is no alternative; we must hope there is a deal. I hope Europe leads the way in providing the financing, adaptation and technology policies required to provide climate change justice with any deal.

People often ask me how they can help to mitigate climate change. We can all do our share. We can buy food with fewer food miles, change the way we farm to reduce emissions, and change the way we do business by conducting it in a more sustainable way and using renewable energy. We can change the way we travel and live our lives. This is the power of one. If people take one message from this discussion, it should be that we are not hopeless in the face of climate change. We have a Government that is willing to tackle it; we have Copenhagen to look forward to; and, individually, we can do our small piece. Climate change is the greatest moral imperative and challenge of our times.

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