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

It is just Deputy Paul Murphy and me.

I will start by acknowledging what was more or less an online fight, but a big fight nonetheless, put up today by the climate movement to hold the Government accountable on the question of fracked gas from North America before it signs off on the projects of common interest on Friday. It took a row, a press conference and tens of thousands of emails from many people across Ireland, some of whom are here tonight - they are very welcome, I thank them for attending, and we will see them again tomorrow - to make the Business Committee and the Government see sense. We will discuss this issue tomorrow, so I will hold fire on most of this until then. However, I take the opportunity to thank the movement for holding the Government to account.

Going back to the statements made at the UN climate summit, one would have to be struck by Greta Thunberg's words, especially when she talked about the fantasy of eternal economic growth. It was a very anti-capitalist "we need system change" statement. Then one thinks of the fantasy of the words of our Taoiseach when he stated that we in Ireland are great because we will ban oil exploration off 80% of our shores sometime after 2035 - maybe even later, maybe 2040 or 2050 - but while we do that we will keep looking for gas because Corrib will run out and we will need it. If, starting tomorrow, we burned all the gas reserves and none of the oil or coal, then, according to the Climate Change Advisory Council, which advised the Taoiseach, we would have a 66% chance of limiting warming to under 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

This is a very skewed interpretation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. It assumes that one is talking about the unknown reserves of fossil fuels and that we can keep digging for them because they are unknown. However, all the science tells us that it is 66% of the known fossil fuel reserves that was referred to. Would the Minister get on an aeroplane if he was told that he had a 66% chance of landing safely? Does he think, therefore, it is okay for the Government to continue to support fossil fuels with the same chance of crashing the entire planet? The Minister and the Taoiseach know that we will not stop burning coal and gas overnight globally and that we must stop burning any more reserves. We also know that if we leave 80% of proven reserves in the ground we have a chance of limiting global temperature increases.

The Taoiseach went to the UN, made flowery speeches and listened to Greta Thunberg and millions of schoolchildren. The other element of his solution was that we would increase carbon taxes and ring-fence them for climate initiatives. Interestingly, it is only a week from the budget and all the talk is about a €6 per tonne increase this year, which will be ring-fenced. Do the mathematics. I asked the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about this. With €6 per tonne one will probably end up with €108 million to spend on climate initiatives. Does the Minister think that will be enough to sort out a just transition for the Bord na Móna workers and the people in Moneypoint? Does he think he will have enough to provide supports for those who need renewable energy in their homes and retrofitting? Indeed, will he have enough to start investing in renewable energy? The carbon tax will act as a double tax, a punitive measure on those who can least afford it.

At the same time, and this is very interesting, the Government continues to block the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018 and to support exploration for gas and oil. Through freedom of information requests and the good research carried out by journalists, we know that the lobbying that took place in this House was extraordinary. It was not just by the native fossil fuel industry but also by ExxonMobil and companies based in China. Some of the biggest fossil fuel giants in the world have been leaning on the Minister and his Department not to support this Bill. As somebody said, the Bill has spooked the fossil fuel industry. I hope the movement on the streets will also spook it.

The Minister continues to rely on profits to invest in renewable energy but he should create a State-run renewable energy company that will leave the environment and the planet secure and ensure a proper future for our children. If he relies on profit, he is taking the wrong road. That is exactly what has happened. The scientist Professor Kevin Anderson once said that nature cannot be fooled. The Government might wish to pretend that fracked gas will emit less greenhouse gas than oil and that 1 million EVs on the road, a growth in the beef and dairy herd and hundreds of data centres are somehow a climate friendly policy, but the atmosphere and nature will not pretend. The climate will not join the Government in that pretence, but will continue to hurtle out of control.

I will conclude to give Deputy Paul Murphy the time he deserves. Next week will be the second Extinction Rebellion week. School students and others will be on the streets. Their first demand is that people tell the truth about science and what needs to be done, which the Department finds impossible. Had the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, considered that demand in the UN, we would not have heard the flowery language but the truth about what the Department is not doing.

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