Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I recall, a decade ago, viewing the film "An Inconvenient Truth", made by the United States presidential candidate Al Gore, which clearly and scientifically identified the effects of climate change and global warming. The film sparked a great debate on climate change at the time. Unfortunately, many interest groups, particularly in the United States, went into denial about the effects of climate change globally at the time. I believe a decade has been lost in taking worldwide action to deal with the effects of climate change.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill sets out the national objective of achieving a transition to a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable economy in the period up to and including the year 2050. The framework is intended to last for 35 years, which is a very long time. That is the reason the legislation provides for the preparation and approval by the Government of national mitigation plans every five years, which will set out how national greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced in line with both existing EU legislative requirements and wider international commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC.

It is worth noting that each successive national mitigation plan will specify the policy measures that will be required to be adopted by each relevant Minister to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in sectors of society for which they are responsible. That will enable the entire Government of the day to move in a meaningful way towards the transition to a low-carbon economy. As Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions profile is predominantly made up of emissions from agriculture, transport, energy and the built environment, it is anticipated that it is in those sectors that the most mitigation effort will be required.

In bringing forward this proposed national legislation, Ireland will also contribute - and be seen to contribute - its fair share of the mitigation effort as part of the global endeavour under the UNFCCC to limit the rise in average global temperature to no more than 2° above the pre-industrial level. These endeavours, if successful, will benefit us all globally, but developing countries in particular, as their lower capacity to respond and adapt renders them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The Bill also deals with adaptation to climate change in that it provides for the preparation and approval of successive national climate change adaptation frameworks which will outline the national strategy that will deal with this important issue.

On a related note, as the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rises with historic levels of emissions, adapting to the inevitable changes in climate in Ireland, such as an increased frequency of severe weather events, becomes critical. It is important to say that severe weather events are not just the heavy storms that seem to sweep in from the Atlantic with increasing frequency in winter, nor is it just the warmer weather we seem to have been getting in recent years; it is events such as localised flooding that have become more of a problem. In my constituency of Dublin Bay North, events such as floods in Donnycarney or waves flooding the coastline and the coast road at Clontarf must also be considered. Such issues must be considered on a local as well as a national basis. In this regard, the national adaptation framework will set out solutions such as flood defences and the protection of communication and electricity infrastructure, which will be required to develop sectoral adaptation plans to prepare for and invest wisely to minimise the likely impacts of a changing climate and extreme weather events. It is essential to point out that never in Ireland has specific climate change legislation been enacted. Enacting such legislation will not be of direct help to this generation, but it will be to future generations, and that is what is important when considering climate change. I support the legislation and I commend the Bill to the House.

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