Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Apologies for being late earlier. I was not delayed in any of the establishments referred to by the Minister, Deputy Kelly.

As a party, Fianna Fáil has had a strong record in introducing progressive measures to tackle climate change, which is, perhaps, the single greatest threat to our children's and our grandchildren's future. We are committed, along with other parties, to ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, renewable energy targets and a climate justice programme to meet our existing EU 2020 obligations, as well as our new obligations agreed at the Paris conference on tackling climate change. The COP21 agreement on new targets beyond 2020 will present great opportunities as well as challenges for Ireland and the next Government. By signing the agreement as a member of the European Union, Ireland is now committed to reducing greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030. As has been said by previous speakers, it is essential that as a country we live up to this agreement and meet our emissions reduction targets and renewable objectives across all areas, including electricity production, agriculture, home heating and transport. We also need to do more to ensure that Ireland meets its climate justice commitments, including making progressive contributions to the cost of adaptation, mitigation and emissions reduction measures in developing countries. Ireland's sporadic contributions to the UN's green climate fund by the outgoing Government have been a black mark on our international reputation.

More than anything, after the devastating flooding we have seen over the last six months, the next Government needs to get serious about introducing measures for adapting to climate change. Ireland's position on Europe's north-western extremity increases its relative vulnerability to extremes in weather. It is projected that the increase in the number of heavy rainfall days per year, leading to wetter winters, will lead to an increased flood risk. A rise in sea level has already been observed and is projected to continue to rise into the future, increasing risks to our coastal communities and assets. Although there is great uncertainty about what the effects of climate change on our country will be, better protecting our communities against coastal erosion and inland flooding should be seen as "no regrets" strategies, since most impacts of climate change are not new but rather the intensification of known hazards. As the recent volatile weather conditions have ruthlessly exposed inadequate flood defences in communities across Ireland, we know a more comprehensive, lasting defence structure must be put in place to withstand future challenges and protect those communities from inevitable future threats.

It is unfortunate that the outgoing Government has been such a laggard in introducing innovative schemes to achieve our greenhouse gas reduction and climate justice targets. In its country report, Ireland 2015, the European Commission states that Ireland is likely to miss its EU 2020 target by a wide margin and that climate related policies are insufficient. We know what policies are needed to meet our EU 2020 targets. The problem has been the implementation and the lack of integration across Departments. Although the latest emission reduction figures are encouraging for some sectors, they show that much more needs to be done. While progress has been made in some areas, especially electricity production and agriculture, to meet our 2020 emissions reduction targets, almost no progress has been made in other areas since 2011, notably home heating and transport. Fianna Fáil is committed to meeting our 2020 targets in these areas and has detailed policy plans for accelerating progress to achieve these. As an independent party in opposition, we would seek to achieve those goals during the course of the next Dáil, rather than being led by somebody's interpretation, as was said by a previous speaker in respect of the arrangement we entered into with Fine Gael in relation to facilitating a Government led by that party.

The targets agreed for after 2020, which will be negotiated within the EU by the incoming Government will be even more stringent and present real challenges for Ireland. In EU negotiations over how to share the burden of meeting the COP21 targets beyond 2020 within the EU, we need to be upfront in trying to get a fair deal for Ireland over the technical details associated with greenhouse gas reduction targets and how they are measured. For example, the high sequestration potential of Ireland's unique grass-based agriculture, as well as the high potential of our forests, boglands and other habitats that absorb carbon, should be accounted for in the calculation of emissions. It is only relatively recently that the European Council has agreed to recognise that the absence of land use change and forestry has been a major gap in the EU policy response to climate change. It is essential that negotiations also recognise the major contribution of sequestration to curbing emission levels.

The climate change debate recently within Ireland has tended to get hung up on a few points of contention. The argument has been made by some groups, such as An Taisce, that Irish agriculture is the elephant in the room, that no progress can be made on meeting our EU obligations without curbing our agricultural output. This argument is both utterly simplistic and wrong. In seeking to meet our targets, policy-makers should not succumb to the simplistic belief that our agricultural output has to be sacrificed. The central question for Ireland following on from the COP21 agreement within the EU will be how much of greenhouse gas emissions can be taken out of the atmosphere by sequestration, what the penalties would be if those targets are not met and how much greenhouse gas Irish livestock and fertilisers can emit. Irish agriculture is responsible for over 32% of national greenhouse gas emissions, compared to an EU average of 10%. Among developed nations, only New Zealand has a higher proportion of total greenhouse gas emissions associated with agriculture. This reflects the relative absence of heavy industry in Ireland and the dominance of cattle and sheep livestock production in Irish agricultural output. However, Irish agriculture is one of the most intensive, lowest carbon food producers in the world. There is a risk that setting binding targets for methane and ammonia reduction, as proposed by some commentators, could have an adverse effect by shifting food production to less carbon efficient contexts. It is essential that future methane and ammonia emission targets are balanced and do not place unattainable obligations on farmers. Binding targets on methane and ammonia, for example, could become self-defeating if they were to lead to the transfer of food production to other countries, which have lower overall costs but less carbon efficient production methods.

It is simply wrong to paint a picture, as some commentators have done, of agriculture as the only area in which we as a country are currently not living up to our emissions reduction responsibilities. In fact, the outgoing Government has done very little to introduce innovative schemes to achieve emissions reductions and renewables targets across all areas including, as I said, home heating, transport and energy production. Policies to achieve our renewables and emission reduction targets in these areas have lacked strategic vision and investment and have fundamentally failed to progress the decarbonisation of the Irish economy. Carbon mitigation across these areas has to be accelerated because this is where the low-hanging fruit in the Irish economy still lives. Decarbonising our economy will not be easy and will take a great deal of political will. However, our message also has to be a positive one. We cannot succumb to the false notion that meeting our climate change obligations has to be a zero-sum burden for the economy. Our message has to be that there are opportunities for Ireland to achieve win-win outcomes in meeting our reduction targets. For example, only 11% of our land is forested, compared to 33% across the EU.

Afforestation has huge potential in terms of helping us to meet our emissions targets. At the same time, the economic returns from forestry are strongly competitive and have the potential to produce a high dividend for regional development and employment. Irish companies are already at the forefront in nascent industries in green technology and environmental services that will be the engines of economic growth for the future economy. Our policy focus over the next few years has to be to ensure that such sustainable growth opportunities are multiplied across the economy and that meeting our climate change targets is a win-win rather than a zero-sum game for our economy and our society.

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