Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is the only planet we have, but we are destroying it. The destruction is being felt more in developing countries because of what we are doing in the developed world and the decisions we are making. In Ireland there is an overall sense that we are not experiencing the destruction and disasters other countries are facing. At times, we would not even know there was a climate emergency. Therefore, it is good that we are talking about it now. However, we have to move on from talking about it to taking action to deal with it. We must accept that it will hurt all of us because we all have to play a part. We cannot put the onus on any one sector, particularly as the international climate change treaties have been ineffective. The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights warned that the impacts of global heating were likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food and housing for hundreds of millions of people but also democracy and the rule of law.

We can say Ireland’s record on climate change ranges from poor to extremely poor. Granted, we did not have massive dirty industries like coal mining or heavy manufacturing. However, we are more reactive than proactive. That will cost us, both morally and financially, with targets being missed in 2020. It is a case of we must do better.

In the developed world we have a responsibility to tackle climate change head on, not renegotiate targets or view the avoidance of fines as a win. We must not use any loophole and not put profit above sustainability. We must face up to the fact that the planet we will be leaving to future generations will be an adverse and a much less habitable place without that strong resolve. The climate action plan is welcome, but it would have been more welcome in 2009 rather than 2019.

Points were made about the carbon-proofing of budgets. One of the particular actions in the plan is the electrification of transport vehicles and having more electric cars. Recently, I had an experience with electric car infrastructure which proved that we were putting the cart before the horse. I was travelling in an electric car from Dublin to west Cork. Having an electric car means that one has to be super-prepared. On our journey we stopped in Tipperary to charge the car. Fortunately, neither of the two chargers in the garage was being used. Otherwise, we would have had to wait one or two hours. One must be able to do the sums in one's head to work out the remaining charge. Heading into Cork city, we had to calculate the number of kilometres left in the charge and the number of kilometres we still had to travel. The sums indicated that the car needed an extra charge. We located a charger in a hotel, but we had to do two tours of the car park before we located it. When we did find it, somebody else had parked in the bay, although they were not using it. As it was a new car, phone calls had to be made to the ESB to connect to and disconnect from the charger. On the way back, we had to calculate the number of kilometres to the nearest charging station because there was so little charge left. It was slow to charge, at only 2 W. It was at a different hotel and another tour to find the charger. We got to a figure of 25 km after two hours of charging. Granted, it did not cost anything, but it was a stressful journey.

Like many people, I had a petrol car, but I was encouraged to change to a diesel car which at the time was cheaper. We are now being told to move to an electric car, but I am not convinced that we have all of the science just yet. Lithium carbonate which is used in electric car batteries is selling at $11,500 per tonne. Given the global demand for electric cars, there will be a significant increase in that figure. Lithium is found in China, poor parts of Argentina, Chile and the Philippines. It is to be found on lands which belong to indigenous peoples who are losing out. Where is the tie-up if the countryside is being taken over to develop lithium mines to prevent climate change? Chinese companies are buying up mines from Australia to South America and we could all get caught up in trade wars. The annual revenues of two companies involved in this sector went from €100 million to over €1 billion in ten years. The jump to using electric cars might just be a little premature and we might be coming back to search for another plan.

Agriculture is our Achilles heel, but all of the fault does not lie with it. There is a need for more forestry. It is good to see some supermarkets tackling the plastic packaging issue in a proactive way. A report from Repak this morning stated Ireland was doing well in recycling. However, this House could do much better. When I was teaching, my school won numerous green flags and there was far more awareness of how to recycle among teenage girls than there is in this House. We could start to look at ourselves like they do in the Bundestag. If one was to check several bins in this building, one would find the same items in each, even though some of them can be recycled.

A recent article in The Guardianreferred to climate apartheid, where the rich pay to escape the heat and the hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis, while the rest of the world suffers.

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