Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

What we had in the Dáil this afternoon was political theatre. This was shown most obviously and blatantly by the climate change denial group which was scaremongering about things that are not in the Bill for some cheap publicity and presumably, hopefully, for some votes down the line. This ignores the fact that it is the small farmers who they claim to stand up for and defend who will be impacted hard by the kind of climate crisis that is coming down the road if the world does not enact a very sharp turn and change.

We also had political theatre from the Government side and from the Green Party, in particular. Listening to the Minister, Deputy Ryan's opening speech, one would be forgiven for thinking that this is a historic Bill and victory for the climate change movement. The Minister said, "It is a Bill for system change that delivers a just transition." That is nonsense and the Minister knows that it is nonsense. It is a scandalous misappropriation of the language of a movement that is being betrayed by the Green Party. "Follow the science" is what that movement demands. "System change and not climate change" is what the people cry out.

Instead, we have a Bill that blatantly closes its eyes and ears to the science to avoid any challenge to fossil capitalism. Every step of the way, capitalist governments have refused to do what is necessary and what the science spells out. The Paris targets, which are not being met anywhere, are themselves inadequate. The EU targets signed off yesterday do not meet the Paris targets and they in turn will not be met. The Government targets we have in a climate action Bill brought forward by a Government including the Green Party do not even meet those inadequate EU targets. It is a case of one inadequate target after another, all of which will be missed if we stay on the road we are on.

To start with the overall science, the target for Ireland to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is not in line with what the science demands. The year 2050 is the absolute deadline to get to net zero or zero to give us a 66% chance of limiting climate change to 1.5°C. Ireland, as a wealthy country, should be leading. It should be going for zero carbon emissions by 2030 rather than by 2050. As has been pointed out, something very important is being hidden in the language of net reductions by 2030 and 2050. It is out of step with science. I have raised previously with the Minister that the language of carbon neutrality leaves it completely open as to how that neutrality is achieved, usually giving a nod to some vague aspiration towards carbon capture techniques and technologies which do not even exist yet. The faith placed in the productive and research capabilities of capitalism is absolutely not warranted and the theoretical effects are completely speculative. Reliance on carbon capture and storage is not a viable climate action strategy.

Even going by the Government's promises, such as in the programme for Government, we are committed to a 7% per annum reduction between now and 2030. However, the Bill, which is obviously lauded by the Government, does not even meet the commitments in the programme for Government. The language used in the Bill means that all of the 51% reduction promised between now and 2030 could be backloaded onto 2029. In the language of the scientists who have written to the Government on this issue, that would represent a predatory delay. It is one of various scenarios the scientists set out, including putting things on the long finger, etc. What is the consequence of that? First, it means the cumulative reductions over the next decade will be less. If it all happens in the last year or most of it happens in the last couple of years or the last three or four years or whatever, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere will be greater. Second, and perhaps most important, it kicks this issue to a future government. It kicks responsibility to a future government which could be relying on the votes or the participation of the climate deniers we currently have in this Dáil. As such, there is no guarantee a future government will follow through on the commitments.

I refer to the language which appears again and again and which amounts to a get-out clause for this and future governments, namely, the language of "insofar as practicable". Section 6 amends section 4 of the principal Act to state, at subsection (11), "A Minister of the Government, shall, in so far as practicable, perform his or her functions in a manner consistent with the most recent approved climate action plan". Section 9 inserts a section 6B which provides at subsection (13) "A Minister of the Government shall, in so far as practicable, perform his or her functions ...". The climate does not care whether everything that can be done has been done insofar as practicable, which in the political reality in this country means insofar as it does not interfere with or tread on the toes of agribusiness in particular. There are not going to be fewer extreme weather events as a result of the Ministers doing everything they could insofar as practicable. There will not be smaller sea level rises because the Ministers did everything insofar as practicable. There will not be a smaller increase in global temperatures because we tried really hard insofar as practicable. It is a get-out clause in the same vein as the references to just transition which did not manage to find their way into the original Bill. There are a few references to just transition in the Bill before the House but every single reference to just transition or climate justice is preceded by "having regard to", which effectively makes it worthless.

In my final minute, I wish to refer to the twin of the climate crisis, namely, the biodiversity crisis. The fourth review of the status of birds in Ireland, a report published in the past week, should be an alarm to everybody, but to the Government in particular. The figures are shocking. Some 63% of Ireland's regularly occurring wild bird species are now of serious conservation concern. There has been a 46% increase in the number of Irish birds on the endangered list in less than a decade. In a sense, these birds are canaries in the coal mine. They are key indicators of environmental health, and changes to their distribution and populations reflect changes in habitats, food change and wider biodiversity. They are incredibly important to the health of ecosystems. They are pollinators, seed dispersers and insect hunters. We cannot survive without them. We have to hear the warning there and recognise we need radical eco-socialist policies to break with the whole logic of fossil fuel capitalism to put an end to and avert the biodiversity and climate crises.

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