Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The extent of biodiversity loss in the context of our declaration of a climate change emergency and the protests of the children on the streets imploring us to do something about climate change before their futures are compromised means that we must move beyond heckling from the corners of this Chamber. It is time to lead, to recognise and to stop the attitude of divide and conquer. I represent a city and a rural area, and I have spoken repeatedly on the importance of balanced regional development. I will speak very strongly on this topic and will not apologise for doing so.

I welcome the speech the Minister made and the fact that she has set out some of the positive initiatives. However, she states we have made meaningful progress, which should be recognised. Of course, it should be recognised. Looking at her first sentence, however, she makes it clear that we are losing biodiversity around the globe at a rate unprecedented in human history. This means that we must take unprecedented action.

I have spoken on the issue of climate change since the day I was elected. I looked back recently on copies of various speeches I gave. I spoke on climate change and the loss of biodiversity on 4 May 2016, shortly after I was elected. I have continued to do so, speaking again on the issues in January 2017, April 2019 and more recently 9 May 2019. I have picked out only a few of my speeches. On 4 May 2016, I referred to the United Nations framework convention on climate change, known as the Rio convention, which was held back in 1992. That is 27 years ago. More recently we had the Paris Agreement, with its binding obligations, and the various reports and legislation we have introduced. All the while the crisis has deepened. We are now in receipt of the report under discussion tonight. It is the most comprehensive report on the issue ever completed, compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries over three years, with inputs from a further 310 contributing authors. I do not often quote a priest in this Chamber, but I agree with Fr. Enda McDonagh when he said that we should have a requiem for the loss of animal species.

I have read the summary of the report; the full report has not yet been published. I ask the sceptical voices in this House to read the report and to come back to me and tell me what they disagree with. The summary report runs to 39 pages. It finds that approximately 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. This is a greater number than ever before in human history, and has been caused by human activities. 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 reef-forming corals, and more than one third of all marine mammals are threatened. Without drastic action to conserve habitats the rate of species extinction, already ten to hundreds of times higher than the average across the past 10 million years, will only increase.

According to the report, agricultural activities have had the largest impact on ecosystems that people depend on for food, clean water and a stable climate. The loss of species and habitats poses as much of a danger to life on earth as does climate change. I could go on, but I believe that we owe it to the children who have gone out on the streets in this country and throughout the world to show leadership and hope. There is hope, but we have to take action. The report specifically states that the biodiversity crisis can be reversed, but to do so will require proactive environmental policies, the sustainable production of food and other resources, and a concerted effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It says that without transformative changes to the world's economic, social and political systems to address the crisis, major biodiversity losses will continue to 2050 and beyond. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, our livelihoods, food security, health and the quality of life world wide. That has been reiterated by Social Justice Ireland, Enda McDonagh, who I have already quoted, and many organisations on the ground. They refer also to policy incoherence. I have used the phrase "cognitive dissonance" in this Chamber before and I am using it again now. On the one hand, we have declared a climate emergency - one of only two countries to declare such an emergency - but, on the other, this is one of only two countries which will fail to meet their targets. There is serious cognitive dissonance at play. There is also policy incoherence in pursuing policies such as Food Harvest 2020 and Foodwise 2025, and the increase in emissions this will yield. There is also a policy incoherence in continuing down the road of fossil fuels and issuing more licences for gas development. We have to deal with that policy incoherence if we are seriously interested in dealing with biodiversity loss.

In Galway city, we have no biodiversity officer. We talk about the importance of maintaining biodiversity and have biodiversity plans but we have nobody to implement them. While I know the Minister is well intentioned, I do not think her response to this report is strong enough. She quoted a few lines from it. However, if she reads through it, she will realise we have to take the most serious and immediate action to deal with the loss of biodiversity. We have to do it, not just for the planet or because it is the right thing to do, but because economically it is the best option.

In a speech on 4 May 2016, I quoted Naomi Klein to much amusement. I will repeat it tonight because it echoes what is said in the report in question. She stated that if we stay on the road we are on, we face radical changes to our physical world. We are talking about allowing sea levels to rise in the name of protecting an economic system that is failing the vast majority of the people on this planet, with or without climate change, global warming and the loss of biodiversity. That warning was echoed in less dramatic language by the former Governor of the Central Bank in February this year when he warned that if the pace of transition to a low-carbon economy was too slow, a sharper adjustment would ultimately be required opposing macroeconomic and financial stability risks.

On every single level we have been warned. However, we are persisting with incoherent and contradictory policies. The Government has a plan called Project Ireland 2040 with beautiful language in it about sustainable development. However, if one looks at the detail of it, it refers to more roads which goes diametrically against what the Citizens’ Assembly called for, namely, a better proportion of investment in public transport, not roads. I gave the specific example of Galway with its proposed ring road of between 16 km and 18 km at a cost of €30 million per kilometre. It must be the most expensive piece of road anywhere in the world. It will only serve to extend linear development and be entirely out of sync with the Government's plans that further development in the cities will be within their footprint.

The Minister’s heart is in the right place and tonight she was given a list of the positive matters. Will she reflect on these issues in the context of the unprecedented loss of biodiversity and unprecedented action that is necessary to tackle it?

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