Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today in the Visitors Gallery there are several climate conscious students who travelled from Donegal this morning to attend the launch of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action's long-awaited report, which may or may not be launched this week, as originally planned. These young men and women organised a climate strike in Lifford, County Donegal, just over a week ago to coincide with the global climate strike carried out by students around the world, initiated by Greta Thunberg. Sadly, I was the only Deputy to show up at the climate strike in Donegal despite the scale of protest, which saw more than 1.4 million young people march in over 100 countries.

These students will hand a petition, which has almost 300 signatures from students and staff across Donegal, to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, today. I thank the Minister for agreeing to meet them to accept the petition. The petition contains demands from students who say the Government's inaction is killing their future. They demand that the Government ensure that all fossil fuels are left in the ground and call for a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure. They also want a climate emergency to be declared and for the State to communicate the severity of the ecological crisis to the public, including a reform of the educational system to address the need for ecological literacy. The rapid implementation of the entire Citizens' Assembly suite of recommendations on climate change is also demanded by the students, as well as policy changes to ensure a reduction in emissions from agriculture.

I am hopeful that the committee's report will go some way to addressing these demands but its main tenets can only be addressed where there is political will within the Government. I urge the Minister and the Taoiseach to seriously consider the list of demands in the petition and show they will take seriously the needs of this and future generations before it is too late. It is clear that this generation of young people will not be quiet on the issue. They refuse to be the generation that will remain "the voiceless future of humanity", as one student activist says. As Governments like the Taoiseach's continue to fail to respond adequately to climate change threats, climate activism is increasingly being harnessed by the young. Many of today's climate strikers will not even be 30 by the time the 1.5o deadline comes around in 2030. That is the significance of this. Will the Taoiseach commit to acting on student demands for urgent action on climate change?

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