Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I might send on the script. As a personal reflection, and I hope I am not breaching a confidence here, the Taoiseach mentioned to me that he was speaking to President-elect Joe Biden this evening - he had to leave the Questions on Promised Legislation for that phone call. The Taoiseach said to me in the conversation one of the key points that President-elect Biden made was that they were going to be rejoining the Paris climate agreement. It was, for him, one of the key messages he wanted to get across in the conversation. That is a really welcome development.

I was in Paris at the signing of the Paris climate agreement and the sense of hope and expectation it raised is not all lost. It is close to being lost if we do not proceed with urgency now but it is still the only and best legal framework we have for international collaboration in achieving its object.

I was fortunate to meet the Chinese ambassador yesterday. In a visit to me, his primary message was that they are looking to achieve a more ambitious national declared contribution sooner than 2060 to net zero. I believe that has been helped by the European Union taking the position it has in going for the higher targets that we mentioned with Deputy O'Rourke earlier. This virtuous circle, I hope, in terms of the increased ambition from Europe, faster ambition from China and now America pledging to come back within the international agreement, gives us some hope that there might be a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom. The Americans rejoining the Paris climate agreement is about the best news I have heard in a long, long time.

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