Dáil debates

Thursday, 9 May 2019

Report of Joint Committee on Climate Action: Motion

 

4:50 pm

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the report and its 42 priority recommendations and 39 ancillary recommendations. I thank the Chairman of the committee, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, my constituency colleague in Galway West, and all the members of the committee, including my colleague, Deputy Pringle, who represents the Independents 4 Change group.

It is important to put all that positivity, which is wonderful, in context. If we go back to 1988 where this started with the first intergovernmental conference, 31 years ago, and following on from that, during all that time our emissions have increased. The Kyoto Protocol was introduced in 1997 and it came into operation in 2005. We can jump forward to the Paris Agreement with its binding targets. Then we come to Ireland where we have had a White Paper, I am not sure if we have had a Green Paper, we have introduced legislation, we had a mitigation plan and a framework plan and we have set up the advisory council.

6 o’clock

We have to acknowledge the Dáil has been led screaming by the nose to do something about climate change. It has not come from the Dáil, although it certainly has come from the Opposition, with new politics since February 2016. I welcome that the Government has come along with us in that new lead. We have been forced by the children of the world, the children of Ireland and the Citizens' Assembly to take action. That is what is happening here.

This is a good report, although I have some reservations about it, which I will come back to in regard to carbon tax and using it to divide and conquer, thereby losing the point of what we are trying to do in regard to climate change. Deputy Bríd Smith mentioned a number of reports. It would be remiss of me not to mention the recent biodiversity report, or should I say the "lack of biodiversity" report. The summary, or the advance unedited version, of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for policymakers makes for grim reading. The UN-commissioned report, the summary of which was approved at the 7th session in Paris last week, is the most comprehensive report on the issue ever completed. It was compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries over the past three years, with inputs from more than 310 contributing authors. The report finds that approximately 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, which is more than ever before in human history. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reforming corals and more than one third of all marine mammals are threatened.

I hasten to add that only a small number of rich developed countries have led us to this disaster, and Ireland, unfortunately, is one of those. The intergovernmental panel's latest report in October 2018 confirmed what we have only 12 years left for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5°C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risk of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people, most of whom have done nothing wrong. Rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society are essential to prevent catastrophic climate change. The latest report from the World Wildlife Fund tells us that the European Union consumes almost 20% of the earth's biocapacity, although it comprises only 7% of the world population. Our role in that, as I understand it, is that Ireland is currently the third highest carbon emitter in the EU. The Climate Change Advisory Council produced its first report in November 2016 and pointed out we are failing to meet our targets. The EPA has spoken out and highlighted that we are failing to meet our targets.

Earlier today, we debated the national broadband plan and we noted for the first time that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform mentioned climate change in this regard. If the Government goes ahead with the plan in the manner in which it plans to do, it will have significant effects on many areas, including our ability to take climate change action.

In regard to the joint committee's report, I welcome the recommendation to set up a committee to monitor the implementation of the priority recommendations and ancillary recommendations, which is essential. Perhaps I am being a bit unfair to the Minister in regard to the way the motion is put because I realise it is the standard language to "note" the report. The report was laid before the Dáil on 29 March. Since then, as we know from each report, and as I have quoted the biodiversity report, circumstances have worsened. I would have thought the Government might have seen sense and moved on from the gentle language of taking "note" to taking action. I welcome the amendments tabled by Fianna Fáil, the Green Party, People Before Profit and Sinn Féin to declare an emergency, which I support. We have to take action but before we take action, as with housing, we have to recognise the problem. That will determine the speed of our action.

There are ten chapters in the report, which is too many to go through in the short time I have left. I will focus on chapter 10, which relates to transport. There are many good suggestions, including that we pick one particular city as a pilot project. Interestingly, this only appears once but it is a very strong recommendation on page 97, where paragraph 6.d states: "develop a pilot scheme for a city and its regional hinterland to develop a best practice model". I welcome that and I would suggest Galway city. The report refers to cities over a certain population size and Galway is a good example of a city that could be picked to implement climate change measures very quickly, particularly in respect of public transport. Our population is 80,000 and destined to increase by another 50%, which is all set out in national development plan and the national planning framework.

The Government talks about sustainability but it also talks about the provision of another road and more traffic, which goes completely against its own recommendations in this report and completely against the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly. As I understand it, the Government has endorsed all of recommendations from the Citizens' Assembly, which asked it to rebalance the money being spent on roads in favour of public transport.

To take Galway again, park and ride facilities could be implemented immediately. It has been in the city development plan since 2005 but, 14 years later, there is not a sign of park and ride in a city of 80,000 people, although it is picked out as one of the five cities to grow. Cycling infrastructure is minimal in Galway and could be immediately improved, with little effort. We have no biodiversity officer in Galway. These are practical measures and if the Minister was seriously interested, this could be done in a short time. The retrofitting of houses has been suggested and this should start immediately with the houses owned by the local authority.

I will give another example. On the one hand, there are good ideas coming from the Government, albeit with sustained pressure from the Opposition, but, on the other, it is doing the opposite. In Galway city, a successful "cash for cans" scheme has been operating for a number of years. People bring back aluminium cans and get a small amount in return. The scheme has been suspended and one of the reasons is that the council believes the polluter should pay. Can the Minister believe this inverted logic? We have people willingly going forward to the council after picking up the aluminium cans but it has suspended the scheme. While that is small and parochial on one level, it illustrates the doublethink of the Government.

I will conclude in regard to carbon tax, which is divisive. The Government is going to divide people, which is unnecessary because the people are united in their demand that we do something about climate change at national level and then work down. We have to show the way in this Dáil and through the Government. By zoning in on a carbon tax for those who can least afford to pay, the Government is in danger of repeating the debacle of the water charges. I ask the Government to learn from that. We have no time left. We need to take serious, urgent action on so many aspects together. Let us agree on what we can agree on and take action, and not divide and conquer.

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