Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a major disappointment to be here discussing the progress on reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. In the Thirty-first Dáil, I was a member of an environment committee that passed legislation in good faith. On behalf of Sinn Féin, we highlighted the shortcomings in that legislation but put our faith in it on the basis that the Government might do better. We felt it was better to have legislation in place as it was not replacing anything else. We felt it was at least a good start but the approach to date has been an abject failure. Report after report has shone a glaring light on this.

The figures are stark. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, reports a 7% rise in greenhouse gas emissions over two years rather than a reduction, with a 2.7% increase in emissions from agriculture, a 3.7% increase from transport and a 6.1% increase in emissions from the energy industry. Earlier in the year, the EPA reported we will miss our targets for 2020; there was meant to be a 20% reduction but it will be somewhere between 4% and 6%. It will be worse, according to the most recent report. It is an horrendous record, further emphasised with the 2018 Climate Change Performance Index that indicates us as the worst European country. It is a bad record to have. Our emissions were decreasing at one point, not because of any action being taken by central or local government or specific measures but rather because the economy collapsed.

This week the Climate Change Advisory Council has slammed the Government's response to this, the lack of action and weakness in the National Mitigation Plan, which is totally inadequate. We must see change. I say that in good faith as I am passionate about this subject. Not reaching our target speaks volumes about the lack of action, vision and any long-term planning by successive Governments - not just this one - with regard to climate change. Emissions keep going up rather than down and we lack any specific measures to change the direction from going towards the carbon cliff I warned of four, five or six years ago. We are approaching that head-on.

We need binding specific sectoral targets for emissions and we have nothing to fear from those. We also urgently need a wide portfolio of renewable energy sources, including biogas, biomass, offshore wind, solar and support for emerging technologies, such as wave and tidal power. I say to the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that we are not tapping into huge areas that could generate jobs and wealth in rural areas. We should be able to do that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With these sources of energy we can protect our environment, increase security of supply and create very important employment in rural areas. Ireland will instead spend billions of euro importing fossil fuels.

We are seeing the effects of climate change with erratic weather patterns, demonstrated with the likes of Storm Ophelia, which is the worst I have seen in my lifetime. At the time we saw widespread damage in my constituency in Laois and parts of the roofs of houses were blown away in the estate in which I live. We saw that replicated right across the country. In the past couple of weeks we saw flooding in Mountmellick and the oldest people in the town had not seen such flash flooding before. It brought extensive damage to more than 100 homes. Portarlington was also flooded.

The Government's solution is the National Mitigation Plan, which is not fit for purpose. I am not trying to have a go but I am saying it to the Minister. It is failing in an abject fashion and it should be revised immediately if we are to take climate change seriously. Wide-ranging change to Government policy is required and without action we will face large fines for not meeting our targets.

We are facing environmental implications beyond the control of future generations. It is up to this generation to act now to address those implications.

Diversifying our renewable energy sources will bring not only environmental benefits but also security of supply and predictable prices, factors which are vital in developing indigenous industries and attracting foreign direct investment. We must not only approach this issue from an environmental perspective but also with the objective of developing rural areas, creating jobs and improving farm incomes. In the midlands, the ending of peat cutting by 2030 will leave us with three power plants that could be converted to handle locally grown biomass. We need to emulate the vision shown by Government in the 1920s and 1930s which saw the establishment of Bord na Móna, Coillte and the ESB. Governments in the past did some great things in terms of invigorating those sectors, rolling out rural electrification and so on. There is no sense of that type of vision from this Government.

We are currently importing biomass to mix with peat to use in the Edenderry plant. Bord na Móna plans to invest €60 million in a biomass plant in North America, from which it will be imported into Ireland. I understand Indonesia was a source of biomass for this country at one point. That is not the right approach. The product is so lovely and clean that one could put it on the kitchen table, but it has clocked up huge carbon miles to get here. In addition, we are losing out economically because we are not creating the product here. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, takes on board that key point. Why is there no proper scheme to allow farmers on marginal land in the midlands and elsewhere to grow willow for biomass? There are huge tracts of land on which there is very little production but which would be ideal for this purpose. Only four farmers signed up to a scheme that was introduced in 2015. Bord na Móna, the farming organisations and individual farmers have raised this issue with me. We cannot simply collapse the jobs in the midlands when we stop peat extraction. Alternative employment must be put in place and here is the opportunity to do it. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, who has responsibility for Bord na Móna, must take action in this regard. As sole shareholder in that body on behalf of taxpayers, he must prevent the proposal to have a plant on the far side of the world shipping biomass here. We are capable of producing it here - after all, we have done more complicated things in harder times - and doing so will protect rural jobs and reduce our emissions.

We have failed to harness the potential to generate biogas from farm waste. We have a large agricultural sector relative to our size, but we need to diversify and make it more sustainable. A European Commission report has identified Ireland as having one of the best resources in Europe for biomass precisely because of our large farm sector. Germany has 8,000 biogas plants and the British have 600, even though they are hardly world leaders in this technology. Meanwhile, we have a pilot scheme coming into operation next April to inject gas into the grid. Taking advantage of our potential in this area will provide a long-term revenue stream for farmers and the potential to create sustainable jobs in rural areas. A study by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland this year cited the potential for the creation of up to 3,000 jobs in the biogas sector in Ireland. Slurry can be mixed with food and other waste to generate gas, but there is a problem in that regard. The State is currently seeking an extension of our derogation on the spreading of pig slurry. Other countries, however, are generating fertiliser and gas out of the same slurry.

In his announcement this week regarding the renewable heat incentive scheme, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine referred to the ongoing examination of biomethane. What does that mean? We do not need to examine anything in that regard because we know it is working elsewhere. We must displace fossil fuels where we do not need to use them. The issue of climate justice is not something in the distant future but for the here and now. Parts of the Philippines are already being washed over. We in the West are creating a far larger carbon footprint than are people in developing countries. We have a responsibility to address the damage we are doing.

There is a much greater role for local authorities in our efforts to address climate change. We need special policy committees, SPCs, in each local authority which would produce action plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions within their area and deal with things like cycleways, walking routes, upgrading homes and managing renewable energy schemes. I acknowledge the good work already being done in this area, but we must do more. Transport contributes more than 20% of our emissions, but we are not even off the blocks in addressing it. There are fewer than 2,000 hybrid vehicles on the road, for instance, and the ESB has been told by the regulator that it can no longer support the infrastructure associated with those vehicles. We must invest more in public transport, reduce car usage and increase the number of cycle lanes.

Blame for the lack of action on climate change does not lie solely with this Government but also with previous Administrations and, in fact, with everybody in society. We all have a responsibility to act. Planning in this regard must extend well beyond the term of this Government or any of our political carers. We need urgent action to produce a coherent plan for diverse forms of renewable energy and power, particularly sources which complement intermittent renewables. Now is the time for action in the form of specific and targeted measures. There is support for that right across the House and growing support in communities. We need to get on with it.

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