Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of those key long-term challenges that requires long-term planning is climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy. I know one of the main areas of the work of NESC is in this arena. Last week the European Parliament approved four of the eight proposals comprising its clean energy package for 2020 to 2030. The directives in question originally had binding renewable energy targets in place for each EU member state to achieve but, regrettably, national targets have been removed in favour of an overall EU-wide target. Under the current 2020 targets, the State faces hefty fines for not meeting our 20% energy efficiency and 16% renewable energy targets. Our current shift to renewable energy is not even touching 10%, which we should regard as an abject failure. Without a binding target for 2030, where is the incentive for us to make real, significant changes in respect of climate change policy?

The Climate Action Network Europe has reported in the past that Ireland has played a negative role in climate change negotiations, so it is possible, if not probable, that the Government played a part in removing national targets during negotiations on the important directives agreed just last week. The Taoiseach might enlighten us as to the Government position on this.

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