Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This question relates specifically to the impact of climate change and the refusal of this Government and other Governments to recognise that we have to leave over 80% of known fossil fuels in the ground. Those are the known ones, never mind going searching for unknown ones. The impact is horrendous. In response to the previous question, the Minister of State mentioned the Citizens' Assembly and the Joint Committee on Climate Action. I am a member of the committee, which will issue its report tomorrow. The committee has been advised by Professor Peter Thorne, who recently wrote about the cyclone in Africa. He said "we can be pretty confident that rainfall associated with such systems has become greater due to human-induced climate change". He pointed out that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water and that if the ocean surface is warmer, there is more moisture going up than coming down. On average, the citizens of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, who suffer from terrible extreme weather events, are responsible for a tiny fraction of emissions compared with their counterparts in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. I will ask the Minister of State a question. How do we take responsibility for what is happening in the developing world as a consequence of our actions in the developed world?

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