Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 6, lines 30 and 31, after “subsection (2)(d)” to insert “, however they may not vary or revise downwards any targets contained in the mitigation plan”.

This amendment provides that when submitting their departmental submissions to the mitigation plan, individual Ministers may not vary or revise downwards the emission targets.The obvious problem with this Bill is that there are no targets. The Government is continuing on the tradition of passing a so-called climate action Bill which contains no binding targets. All 24 amendments that sought to insert targets in the Bill were ruled out of order.

The suggested targets in those amendments all came from the advice of environmental organisations. These were based on targets that are most commonly legislated for internationally and which are based on emission targets some 80% less than the total emission targets in 1990. In the meantime other countries have gone even further than that. In Ireland, however, we are presented with legislation without targets. The plan for tackling greenhouse gases will be presented in two years' time despite examples of what needs to be done being evident across the world.

The UNIPCC report indicates there is a 95% certainty that climate change is occurring mainly because of greenhouse gases released by human activity, above the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. If the Minister of State is serious about tackling climate change and averting environmental disaster, we need to take rapid action. We know what needs to be done. Greenhouse gas emissions need to be massively cut. The European Commission suggested a cut of 40% by 2030, while environmental organisations and NGOs have said we need a 55% cut by 2030.

We cannot continue to put the economy, the interests of big business and the profit system above the environment and the planet itself.

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