Dáil debates

Wednesday, 10 June 2020

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements

 

11:15 am

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

When the Covid crisis hit, countries all over the world very quickly realised the seriousness of the situation and the scale of the crisis being faced. Governments responded quickly and politicians worked together to agree measures that were based on science and the evidence of experts. Our public sector and communities worked tirelessly to form a safety net around the most vulnerable. We demonstrated that, together, we could face down this enormous challenge. The response was not perfect and there are lessons to be learned, but I am reminded of something that Dr. Mike Ryan from the WHO said, "Perfection is the enemy of the good when it comes to emergency management. Speed trumps perfection."

Unfortunately, when it comes to the climate and biodiversity crisis that we face here in Ireland, we are seeing neither speed nor perfection. Instead, climate action in this country has amounted to an endless stream of reports, reviews and plans with very few results. Where there has been legislation, it has been weak on targets; where there have been gaps, these have been filled with policies and plans; and where we have had policies and plans, we have had very little oversight of or accountability for their implementation. Not surprisingly, this has led to very few results in the five years since climate action was first legislated for.

Take for example the 2014 national policy position and the 2017 national mitigation plan, both of which were wholly unambitious. They have now been superseded by commitments in the Government's climate action plan. This plan, however, has never been put on a statutory footing and is not linked to the ongoing preparation of the national mitigation plan or long-term strategy. Soon there will be a national energy and climate plan under the EU clean energy package, which will produce yet another separate climate strategy whose statutory basis is in EU rather than national law.

We have been left with a web of disjointed and incoherent policies. One's head would actually spin at the different streams and the number of documents, and while some of them are ambitious, the follow-through actions are missing. Good climate action policy requires good legislation.

Without that legislation, policies and plans will merely amount to pure rhetoric and a sluggish approach to climate change. They will not provide the sense of urgency that we require at this point. Strong, target-driven legislation will be the central driver in the delivery of our national and international climate action obligations, but we remain without this for the time being.

The climate action (amendment) Bill has been left in limbo. It would have provided a robust framework that was reinforced by five-year carbon budgets, set out key sectoral targets and provided the Oireachtas with oversight and the powers we required. For the fifth year in a row, however, we are participating in a debate on an annual transition statement in the absence of the implementation of effective legislation. In essence, this is our environmental Groundhog Day.

We need the implementation of strong, target-driven legislation that is backed by science to help us achieve our climate action and biodiversity objectives. Biodiversity absolutely needs to be included in these discussions. We should not be talking about the climate crisis without also referencing the biodiversity crisis that we face. I welcome that the House last year declared a climate and biodiversity crisis, but we need to move on. The two major issues are intertwined and cannot be dealt with independently of each other. We need policy and legislative coherence on them.

The transition statement references biodiversity, but it is weak and minimal in that regard. Of all the actions in the climate action plan, biodiversity is not referenced once. There is some discussion about green schools and agriculture, but the focus we need on biodiversity is not present. There is a sectoral adaption plan for biodiversity under the transition statement, but we will not have the opportunity to discuss it with the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht today. That is a major gap in this debate on the transition statement and demonstrates that biodiversity is not being taken seriously in our considerations on climate action.

Biodiversity and nature-based solutions are key to addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation and allowing nature to be the solution to a multitude of the challenges we face. They provide carbon storage potential, flood management, soil stability, water management and erosion reduction, but these are just a few of the benefits that we can get from using nature to address climate change. Since there will also be the biodiversity benefits, it would be a win-win for the environment.

In recent days, it has been reported that seagrasses are 30 times more efficient at capturing and storing carbon than tropical forests, yet we do not have a full picture or understanding of where our seagrass populations are and their full extent. We certainly do not have management plans in place for them and we do not afford them any protection through marine national parks or no-take zones. Seagrasses are only one example - there is a multitude of examples across our natural world that we should focus on protecting and enhancing. Nature in turn will help us to address the climate change problems we face.

We need to take nature seriously when it comes to climate change. It is unfortunate that the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is not present to be part of that discussion. Will the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment commit to incorporating nature-based solutions and biodiversity measures in all the climate change, adaptation and mitigation plans, policies and legislation as we proceed? Having such a commitment and striving in that direction would be important.

I wish to ask about funding for measures under our many plans and policies. At local level, councils have been heavily involved in developing mitigation plans and adaptation plans. They have biodiversity officers in place and have worked with the climate action regional offices on their climate action charters. However, the difficulty is that no funding is being attached to many of the programmes. This time last year, I was a member of Wicklow County Council and our local property tax had to pay for our climate officer. It is a good strategy to have local councils, which are on the ground at the coalface with communities, develop climate change policies and drive them at local level, but we will have to fund that work. For even simple measures like the electric chargers that the Minister referenced, councils must cover 25% of the cost.

We are going into a very uncertain economic future where councils will find it difficult to perform their normal standard functions. They will struggle to carry out the additional climate change and biodiversity measures we are asking of them. Will the Minister commit to giving councils additional funding to perform their climate change and biodiversity responsibilities?

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