Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister addressed the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action on 5 December and made very specific references to the €500 million climate action fund. He has already said that there are seven major climate change projects that will share €77 million in Government funding. He also made reference to the sovereign green bond. If we are talking about how the decisions we will make by 2020 will determine whether global heating can be kept at 1.5° centigrade above pre-industrial levels, that expenditure will be vital in terms of programmes that will be put to good use on our own little island. I would like to hear the Minister tell us what sense of urgency exists across the Government with regard to deploying that funding in very specific areas like decarbonisation of buildings, transport networks and smart grids. I would like to get a sense from him that there is an urgency across Government with regard to its own response. If we are signing up to this rule book as per the 2015 Paris Agreement and if we are serious about hitting the pre-industrial targets in terms of mitigating against a 1.5° centigrade increase in temperature by 2020, what measures is the Government taking?

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