Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Climate change is one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat, to our planet, its life and its species. While we have been able to advance dramatically as a species and develop a whole plethora of new technologies, we have not been and never will be able to fully harness or control nature. The power of nature can have an immediate and devastating impact on our lives and communities. Many of us saw at first hand the floods and the destruction that hit parts of Ireland in early January. Many families are still dealing with the fallout from that rainfall. Human activity, with all its exploitation and wasting of limited resources, which is linked to climate change, is having significant long-term consequences. The increased unpredictability of rainy seasons and longer and longer droughts, combined with the increased level of extreme weather patterns, have thrown many vulnerable people - increasingly, those in the developing world - into starvation and destitution. This year, 20 million people in east Africa are at risk of hunger due to drought as a result of El Niño, which is exacerbated by climate change, an issue I have raised directly with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, on numerous occasions. I asked for more focused and direct support from Irish Aid to the directly affected areas. It is precisely those who are living a subsistence life or those on an unstable and uncertain income who are affected the most by the environmental shocks created by climate change. One half of our planet's population starves while the half other half robs its resources and is most to blame for the speed of climate change. We now know that a temperature increase of a mere 2° Celsius compared to pre-industrial times will most definitely have a devastating, irrevocable impact at local and global levels that will be catastrophic for our planet. Like many others, I welcome the Paris agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015. This agreement marks the first time that all states - large and small, rich and poor - agreed to take action to reduce carbon emissions, to increase our collective ambition to hold current temperature rise to well below 2° Celsius, and to pursue policies in line with a safer limit of 1.5° Celsius.

Sinn Féin has welcomed the Irish Government's signing of this landmark agreement, but any new Government will have a huge task to reach these challenging targets. Earlier this year the Environmental Protection Agency again highlighted that Ireland is currently well off track for meeting even the existing EU climate targets for 2020, and that policies currently planned will be insufficient to rectify this. The next Government needs to urgently rectify this as a matter of priority. It will be no easy task, since EU climate targets and policies will have to increase in ambition over time and in line with the Paris agreement. This new challenge means that any new Government will need to rapidly increase its own ambition in order to meet the existing 2020 targets but also to meet the ongoing and increased targets that we will face in the coming decades. These targets require consistent and persistent work. They cannot simply be met by changes implemented over the course of a year or by changes in a one-off budget. If Ireland does not meet these EU targets we will be saddled with significant annual fines. Therefore, it is in our own selfish and financial interest to meet the targets, as well as being for the good of the planet and for future generations.

Ireland is well placed to gain from any transition to a sustainable, low-carbon global economy if we invest now in the green economy and a sustainable energy model. In helping to combat climate change and in helping to reach our long term development goals of eradicating global poverty and hunger, we could, ironically, be well placed to also benefit our own economy. It should be a matter of priority to ensure immediately that the forthcoming national mitigation plan is sufficiently robust to bring Ireland into line with the existing EU targets and place the country firmly on a trajectory for meeting stronger targets post-2020.

On foot of today’s debate, the new Climate Change Advisory Council, established by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, should be asked to provide recommendations to the Government in advance of the publication of a draft plan and to ensure that any new plan is fully thought out and robust enough to transform the way we do business.

Another key part of Ireland’s climate action needs to be a transition away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy. Energy accounts for around 66% of emissions in Ireland and is an area in which significant reductions need to be delivered. No one is suggesting it will be easy. However, it is possible and it is absolutely necessary. It has also been brought to my attention by Trócaire, and from a lobby of numerous constituents, that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, invests heavily in the same fossil fuel industry that is having such a devastating impact on our climate. The ISIF needs to reinvest away from the fossil fuel industry and use its funding in a 100% percent renewable energy investment mandate.

Another major factor in holding back positive action on climate change is the ongoing TTIP negotiations. This week, Greenpeace posted 248 pages of leaked documents that help to shine a light on the TTIP negotiations. The leak reinforces the view - held by many who have lobbied against the talks - that TTIP negotiations are about removing regulations rather than reinforcing them. While the leaks are around negotiating stances and are not actual outcomes or decisions that have been agreed upon, they still raise questions around the dangers posed by TTIP, especially for health and the environment. The leaks suggest that the EU’s precautionary principle is not being defended by its negotiators and is coming under mounting attack by the US negotiators. The EU has by far the higher trade protection standards for human, animal and plant life and health when compared with the US. These leaks indicate that the US side is aggressively pushing to reduce these regulations while the EU remains silent and compliant. The leaked papers also show that the US negotiators are pushing to scrap existing EU rules in areas such as food labelling or in the approval of dangerous chemicals if the rules are so-called barriers to free trade. Essentially, the leaked documents confirm the view that TTIP is a clearing mechanism for a race to the bottom in environmental and consumer protection and in public health standards. The leaked papers also indicate that the US is refusing to accept any reforms suggested by the EU to the hugely controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, the corporate court mechanism which allows big business to sue governments for lost profits, even if the laws in question are to raise social or environmental standards.

The harmonisation of US and EU regulations under TTIP could also put EU climate and energy regulations under added pressure. The US clearly does not have Europe’s broad commitments to climate and energy policy. When policies create differential costs, it will be argued that they are barriers to trade. The existence of the EU emissions trading system, targets for renewables and energy efficiency, and policies such as feed-in tariffs that subsidise renewables, might be seen by some investors as unfairly penalising non-renewable energy sources. There is a danger that an Irish Government or other governments could be brought before this investor court.

If TTIP is allowed to rewrite or overwrite climate and energy regulations, it could mean a slow down or reversal in Europe's progress towards a cleaner, sustainable, low-carbon energy system.

Harmonisation or a dumbing down of EU standards to US levels could also harm the worldwide efforts to reduce carbon emissions and limit the damage from climate change. Most of the information we have about TTIP comes from leaked documents with the remainder emanating from various PR exercises of the Commission and a compliant Irish Government. Ultimately, the leaks highlight the extreme secrecy and lack of democratic input in the TTIP negotiations. These leaks reaffirm and consolidate the concerns that Sinn Féin and many others have put forward regarding TTIP. Surely it is way past the time for these negotiations to be stopped and for the European Commission to come clean and tell its citizens exactly what is being discussed and traded away in their name and the impact it will have not only on the climate but on future generations to come.

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