Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. I fully support the ratification of the agreement. It is an urgent call to action. I am afraid the debate is over. With the greatest of respect to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, the Sarah Palin type of politics is over. That debate is gone. The debate is no longer on whether our emissions are having an effect: it is on the severity of the impact and the window of opportunity we may still have as we learn to take responsibility for our rates of emission, which are contributing to global warming. In this regard, I welcome the Minister's statement that he intends to apply himself to bridging the chasm between global challenge and national responsibility. We have no choice at all in this matter.

The EPA has pointed out that we are not going to meet our targets. The advisory council has pointed out that the fiscal space will shrink by €3 billion to €6 billion because of our failure to meet targets. The Minister has not addressed this at all in his speech. The cost of not addressing our failure to curtail our emissions was not addressed, but the Stern report, among many others, has pointed out, along with my colleague, that it will cost up to 20 times more if we do not reduce our emissions. At some stage, sense must prevail. While I welcome the Minister's speech today, I am disappointed with the details. He referred to the national mitigation plan that must be produced by the end of this year. There is no sign of that or the draft. There is an action plan to be produced by June of next year. Will it be issued? What are our plans?

Under the Paris conference we must commit to a five-year plan, with each year having more ambitious targets. How are we going to do that? Such is the seriousness of this that we should receive an update every six months in the Dáil.

I sit on the Committee of Public Accounts, as Members know. Representatives of the National Treasury Management Agency appeared before us. The chief executive, Mr. Kelly, whose honesty surprised me, put up his hand and said the agency had not given any consideration to the risk of climate change in its investment policy. Second, he committed to returning to tell us how the agency will change its policy. We require a Government investment in changing from fossil fuels. Some 80% of fossil fuels must remain in the ground; we have no choice about that. We must consider renewable energy.

Climate justice comes into play because, as we sit here, 10 million Ethiopians are facing starvation. Not all of them are starving but they are all on the breadline. The carbon emissions of one Irish person equal those of 80 Ethiopians. How can we stand here and say that is fair or just and not say we have to change that?

I despair over our transport policy. One arm of the Government, represented by the Minister present, is considering positive measures while the other is considering an increasing number of roads. Some 96,000 vehicles enter Galway city daily. Vehicles are producing an increasing amount of emissions but the only solution in town that the local authority and Government are talking about is another road. I despair.

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