Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement by ourselves, the EU and 193 states. It would have been really nice to have been able to celebrate this anniversary and for us to be able to stand tall as a nation and say that we had taken our climate obligations seriously, met the relatively low targets that had been set for us and shown leadership in this regard. Instead we are here to approve a paper exercise - a sleight of hand that essentially is just us pretending we have met the targets. We refer to it as a statistical transfer but the reality is that it is a certificate of a failure that will cost us €50 million. This figure of €50 million could and should have been spent on our public infrastructure - our own green infrastructure. Instead it is winging its way to Estonia and Denmark to enable them to invest in their public infrastructure. I note that the Minister of State and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications yesterday said that it was a positive thing and that this money was going over to these countries, which would invest in their green infrastructure. It is not positive. We need that money here. We have targets to meet and we need to make sure we are investing in the areas in which we should be investing. It is ridiculous that instead of investing in our own public services, we are investing in the public services of a different country. It is a huge amount of money. As we attempt to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, there are so many areas where we could focus that money. Our environmental organisations are crying out for more funding. We can imagine what they could do with €50 million.

The money could also go towards our much-needed retrofitting of homes. To put it into perspective, €50 million could retrofit between 1,500 and 2,500 homes in this country. It could have purchased 5,000 solar panels for schools across the country. Environmental groups such as BirdWatch Ireland and the Irish Wildlife Trust get approximately €15,000 per year in State funding and here we are sending €50 million to other countries. Instead of us using this money, it is going to another country to reward it for its good behaviour and progress on developing renewable energy. It is a real slap on the wrist for us - a slap in the face actually for those environmental organisations that need money to do the great work they do.

This is not something we will be able to vote against today but it offers us and the Government an opportunity to reflect on the mistakes of the past Government so that they are not repeated and that Ireland's capacity to generate renewable energy and meet any subsequent targets successfully, including the programme for Government target of 70% renewable energy by 2030, is boosted. Unfortunately, we are so far behind that it is likely we will struggle to meet the target in ten years' time. In 2018, compared to other EU countries, Ireland had the second largest gap to the 2020 target and the second lowest share of renewable heat of any EU member state. Because heat is a large share of final end use, Ireland's low share of renewable heat is the main reason we failed to meet our 2020 renewable energy targets. The Irish Wind Energy Association, IWEA, also predicts that with regard to onshore wind expansion, Ireland will struggle to reach its national target of 70% electricity from renewable energy by 2030.

According to the IWEA, this is due to existing barriers to planning and grid connections that are yet to be resolved. The decisions of past Governments have led us to where we are. Past Governments, for example, decided to only allow onshore wind to compete in the support scheme they had set up and not facilitate offshore wind and solar. Hence, we are top-heavy when it comes to wind and we are lagging far behind in the areas of heat transport and solar energy.

How many bad decisions that we are now beholden to have led us here? How much in time and effort do we have to make up for past mistakes? How can we ensure this Government does absolutely everything necessary to make up for that missed time as well as progressively develop our renewable energy sector to meet current and future targets? It is time to take this issue of our climate obligations both nationally and internationally seriously; paper exercises will not cut it any longer.

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