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

I have listened to the Minister and the Green Party spokespersons over the past while talk about the measures that can be taken, the targets and the commitments. I have seen plans on the opening of various projects but then we all listen to the news and the reports of what is happening here in this country and globally, and many Deputies have spoken about it. The truth, however, is that the economic system of global capitalism we live under is destroying life on this planet as we know it before our very eyes and in this generation. I do not believe we are on the road, or have a plan to be on the road, to achieving the cuts in CO2 emissions that we need or that we have a plan to achieve the renewable energy that we need, the radical and far-reaching changes, to quote the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, and the radical transformation required across our economy and society to meet the challenge of climate change.

We remain wedded to the logic of capitalism, the free market and an ever-expanding economic system based on gross inequality and abuse of the environment. The majority of the people in that environment are victims of it because of the pursuit of profits and wealth for a tiny elite. Nothing shows that better than the Californian fires and the mass extinction of species. We know that EU funds will be open to gas projects. A report shows that Ireland's temperature will increase by 1.6oC by the middle of the century and another report reveals that the world has not achieved a single target in the past ten years aimed at saving biodiversity or arresting the sixth great mass extinction. While we have been preoccupied, rightly, with the Covid-19 crisis, this extinction and the climate crisis have rolled on regardless but they are hitting ever-new records and extremes, new devastation and locking us into greater catastrophe for this and future generations.

Even the fall in the CO2 emissions that are occasioned by the mass lockdowns across the industrialised world showed us that emissions declined by 5% to 7%. In reality, that is a blip in terms of what is needed. The concentrations are rising steadily and we are now at 411 parts per million, which is the highest in 3 million years. I hope these lockdowns might have shown the ruling elite that there are lessons to be learned in why we should not go after the personal behaviour of individuals because as much as personal behaviour changed during the lockdown, we did not manage to come near the achievement of a reduction in CO2 targets. In reality, any policy that goes after changing personal behaviour is not working and will not work. It is only designed to deflect us from the great ocean of truth that this economic system is driving extinction and climate change.

I will finish by commenting on some of the policies that were promised in the near future. Regarding the carbon taxes, I said previously when we were on the climate action committee and repeat that there are no safeguards to protect the most vulnerable when carbon taxes are increased. This Government, and its predecessor, has refused to conduct the needed research into the extent of fuel poverty in our population or indeed the risk that it poses. Increasing the cost of fuel, heating and electricity while offering no viable alternative to those who are most vulnerable is an attempt to pretend that individual behaviour is the problem. I remain opposed to this increase because I know its consequences.

With regard to renewable energy, I welcome moves to embrace and increase renewable energy projects, particularly in the community, but the problem with the scale of the increases is not that we are heading in that direction but that it is all in the hands of private global corporations. There is a problem with that. If we were to create a State renewable company and take over our own natural resources, it could result in huge investment and outcomes for the people. Instead, we are again leaving this important area to the vagaries of the market and I believe our renewable targets will, therefore, remain unfulfilled.

On the issuing of licences for gas and oil exploration, I welcome the Minister's confirmation that he will not be issuing new exploration licences but he needs to make sure that the large body of our waters that are in the hands of those who have bought up licences do not get the next step-up stage in those licences and acknowledge that the battle around that was won by the climate movement before this Government formed.

Similarly, on the question of liquified natural gas, LNG, we need to be careful that although we may have banned fracked gas from our shores we need to make sure that no gas is allowed to be brought to our shores in liquified form from abroad. That will be a battle for the Minister. I will be behind him, as will the movement, because in fairness to the Shannon LNG activists, it is they who have achieved that.

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