Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I share Deputy Boyd Barrett's concern about CETA. To take a specific example, the concern is that it does not protect the environmental standards we need desperately to enforce. One can say one thing but do another. The Taoiseach said that many of his discussions with Prime Minister Trudeau concerned the issue of climate change. Whatever the spin may be, I am afraid my understanding is that the Canadian Prime Minister spoke at a recent oil conference in Canada and said no one would find 173 billion barrels of oil and not use it, and this is what the Canadian Government is doing in one of the greatest acts of environmental destruction happening on our planet. The use of that oil would account for approximately 30% of the total global carbon budget that we can afford to release into the atmosphere. Prime Minister Trudeau's Government's co-operation with the US Government in building and reopening the Keystone pipeline and other pipelines calls into question their role in the climate issue. I am interested to know what the discussion about climate change between the Taoiseach and Prime Minister Trudeau was about. What did the Taoiseach propose as our special initiative or special actions in this area? Did he ask the Canadian Prime Minister to explain how he can talk up climate and yet plan to burn 173 billion barrels of shale oil, the dirtiest form of fuel available to us? What leg does Prime Minister Trudeau have to stand on in respect of the climate issue when he is planning to do this and ship the oil across the Keystone pipeline and other pipelines to the rest of the world?

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