Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The name of this Bill, the Climate Emergency Measures Bill, is important. Just as when we talk about the housing crisis, it is vital we call things what they are and in this case we have an emergency, a catastrophe which threatens humanity. Instead of recognising that, political leaders around the world largely fiddle while the world burns, because of the interests they represent, whether they be agribusiness or fossil fuels. They ignore the severity of the problem and pay lipservice to it while we hurtle towards a climate disaster. The most simple point that we must reiterate repeatedly in this debate, because it is unanswerable, is that the known fossil fuel reserves are already four or five times the amount that can be burned without increasing the global temperature above the 2° Celsius limit agreed in Paris, which would be catastrophic. It is that simple. It is an open and shut case as long as the profits and the share price of the fossil fuel industry does not come into it.

Even that 2° Celsius limit is too high. Globally, temperatures have already increased by almost 1° Celsius which is enough over time to melt half the ice in the Arctic as well as creating the basis for a massive increased occurrence of extreme weather events, including droughts and floods. We already see this. It is not something in the dim and distant future, rather it is happening now. Global temperatures are rising. Sixteen of the 17 warmest years on record occurred since 2001. Global warming has been concentrated in the past 35 years. In Iraq, in 2016, temperatures hit 54° Celsius, which is close to the point at which humans cannot survive outside. In Ireland, six of the ten warmest years have occurred since 1990.

The consequence of that rapid change in our environment is immense. The environment is not something separate or external to human society and how we have to live. It was an idea captured brilliantly by Karl Marx when he explained that nature is our second body. We cannot function without it, yet capitalism is destroying it. The consequences are seen in thousands dying as a result of unnecessary and extreme weather events that are not inevitable but which are caused by climate change. That figure is set to increase to up to 150,000 deaths annually from extreme weather events by the end of this century. Some 14 million people have already been made homeless due to extreme weather events. The impact on agriculture is already being seen in the threat to bees in Germany, where three quarters of all flying insects have disappeared in the past 25 years. The impact on biodiversity, agriculture and the sustainability of human existence is devastating. Some 95% of the Great Barrier Reef has suffered from bleaching which is largely irreversible. This is the canary in the coal mine, when it comes to the devastating impact of the policies we have been pursing.

It has an impact on the millions of people who have suffered malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea, heat stress, a return of famine and an increase in those living in areas affected by famine in the past year. As a result, it is estimated that between 2030 and 2050 the number of additional deaths caused by climate change will be 250,000 annually. In Ireland, Hurricane Ophelia left widespread damage last October. Flooding in Donegal in 2017 has already cost €15 million in damage and repairs at current rates, and rain and flood damage is set to increase by 30% in the coming years.

The cause of this and many other examples is indisputable. It is carbon emissions through the burning of fossil fuels globally. The answer demanded by activists around the world, and those here today, is very simple: we have to keep it in the ground. Ireland's record on the environment is very poor. The Government and Ireland's political establishment should be extremely embarrassed. According to the 2018 climate change performance index, Ireland is the worst performing country in Europe in terms of taking action. It is in first place in the volume of emissions per person in Europe and is eighth highest in the world. Ireland is set to miss its EU 2020 and 2030 emission reduction targets, and greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 7% since 2015. The consequences are paid not only by people here and around the world, but they will also be paid financially to the tune of up to €600 million in fines. We also have the third highest emissions per capitaof residential energy use due to our high dependence on oil, coal and peat. If we continue on this trajectory, Ireland will not be able to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide by 80% by 2050. By way of comparison, the transport sector accounts for 19% of emissions, the industrial and commercial sector, 16%, energy, 19%, and waste, 3%, with agriculture the source of the largest amount of emissions in Ireland at 33%. The agrifood sector is a major political block to change here.

Just as elsewhere in the world, it is establishment politicians who lag and people who lead. The recent Citizens' Assembly recommended by 98% that climate change be put centre stage in Irish policy making, showing widespread support for environmental issues, and 100% recommending that the State should take a leadership role and responsibility for adapting existing structures. It was the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, who gave the game away in Paris a year or two ago when he said that climate change is not a priority for Ireland. He gave the establishment's game away at a meeting to discuss climate change, of all places.

The Government now gives us different lipservice, which I suppose is welcome. The Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, has said that he is not proud of Ireland's role as a climate change laggard. It is absolutely the case that there is nothing to be proud of, but will he do something about it? That is the real question. From the point of view of humanity, it makes no sense to explore for more fossil fuels, fuels that cannot be burned without destroying our environment. The only logic for exploring for more fossil fuels comes from the companies which want to increase their share price by increasing their reserves. A paper published in Nature estimated that if we are to avoid going over the 2° Celsius point, some 82% of coal worldwide cannot be burned, along with 49% of gas and 33% of oil. We cannot burn it. We should pass Second Stage today and the Government should implement the Bill. We should agree to keep such fuels in the ground and send a message around the world.

In the context of the broader picture of why this is happening, the answer is contained in some of the points about the power of the fossil fuel industry. There is an idea, with which I agree, that describes the era in which we live as the anthropocene, that humanity is having a huge impact on the environment, especially in relation to climate change. It explains the massive acceleration in world temperatures since the industrial revolution. It is not only human society in the abstract which is having an impact on the environment, but human society organised in the form of capitalism, in the private ownership of energy companies and in the means of production and the drive for profit, where the damage to nature is externalised, companies do not care about the cost to nature, where humanity has been disconnected from nature as a result of that drive to profit, and where just 90 major companies have created 63% of the cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since 1751.

As Friedrich Engels observed "We do not merely want an amelioration of the present society but the establishment of a new one."

Capitalism has outlived its usefulness for humanity. It has destroyed our environment and disrupted our climate. It has regulated 1 billion people to the slow death of starvation and malnutrition. It offers no way forward. Instead, we need a rapid and just transition to an economy based on zero emissions. It means leaving fossil fuels in the ground. It means investment in transitioning to renewable energy, in passive houses, in retrofitting and in public transport and it means democratic planning over our economy to meet the needs of people and planet.

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