Dáil debates

Wednesday, 14 July 2021

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: From the Seanad

 

8:32 pm

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

It is safe to say that many of us were very surprised when we saw these amendments coming from the Seanad. After spending weeks and months, hundreds of hours of work, listening to advice, listening to the experts and trying to work as collaboratively as possible on this Bill, to see these amendments come in at the last minute with no real notice was incredibly disappointing. In my opinion, and that of many others, including Professor John Sweeney, it has undermined the work that has gone into this Bill. It is a very important Bill and we all wanted to work with the Minister to make it stronger and to future-proof it to make it a Bill for future generations and governments. Unfortunately, these amendments have undermined that completely. We tried to put amendments in before. They were good, simple amendments, and the Minister refused to engage. On Committee Stage he accepted no amendments at all. To see these amendments come in now at this stage is very disappointing.

The Government amendments to section 9, in particular, give it extraordinary powers to sidestep international standards and scientifically-based accounting rules. They will also greatly politicise climate action by putting into the Government's hands the capacity to rewrite how it calculates removals of carbon and determines consequential obligations to reduce emissions in sectors. All the way through, the Bill was supposed to be evidence-based and scientifically led but now these amendments have turned that on its head and it will be politically driven.

It is a big mistake and I believe it will cause big problems down the road when we are trying to meet our climate obligations.

The issues are that the powers granted in these problematic Seanad amendments made by the Government to section 6(a) are about making new accounting rules for removals. This creates huge risk. The powerful sectoral lobby interests will be in the driving seat, not science, when we are preparing the fundamental core element of the framework to the Bill, the carbon budgets from which so much of the rest of the framework of this Bill then flows. Furthermore, regardless of this, whatever methodology the Government decides to use for removals, the Climate Change Advisory Council will also now be bound to comply with these rules in its carbon budget considerations. This greatly compromises the council's independence, which is crucial for proper, effective, scientifically based climate action and it also provides no Oireachtas oversight.

This Seanad amendment introduces extra powers in the new subsections in the new section 6(a), but these are not even currently covered by the overarching obligations on Ministers or Governments in the new section 3(3) proposed in section 5 of the 2021 draft Bill. This is a very technical issue. It is a very complex issue and my fear is that all the amendments the Minister has subsequently proposed are doing, is providing him and his party with cover on this issue and they will not fundamentally address the matters at hand.

The overarching obligation details general UNFCCC, Paris and EU obligations and binds the Government and Ministers to act in a manner consistent with those specified obligations and to take into consideration the latest EPA inventories when carrying out its functions under specified sections of the Bill. However, the overarching obligations do not address the relevant considerations for accounting rules. Simply put, we need a lot more safeguards.

I acknowledge that the Minister included a further amendment to attempt to address it, but it only partially addresses the accounting issue that I have outlined. While it is welcome that the Minister made the effort, it is not enough. What is included in the overarching provisions is not sufficiently relevant to what the Government will be doing in the accounting rules. It simply does not cover the UNFCCC methodology and the EU requirement for accounting.

The Minister has also failed to address the concerns on how the Government's Seanad amendments compromise the independence and scientific basis of the work of the Climate Change Advisory Council and he has made no provision for the Oireachtas to approve these accounting rules. The amendments Deputy Bríd Smith and I have tabled cover that. My amendment attempts to rectify these concerns by counteracting the politicisation of climate action and restoring the independence of the Climate Change Advisory Council, while also strengthening the language contained in the Government's amendments. In short, my amendment proposes the following: to bind the Government to achieve consistency with the UNFCCC methodology, which adopts the IPC approach, and also with the EU approach when making these regulations and homespun rules. It requires Oireachtas approval of these rules so there is some democratic oversight, accountability and scrutiny and does not bind the climate committee to comply with them so it leaves it independent.

Huge work has been done by so many on this Bill, inside and outside of the Oireachtas. We have benefitted from the expertise of so many who have tried to assist us to build a robust Bill fit for the road ahead. I acknowledge the assistance of people from the environmental NGOs for alerting us to these issues, in particular Professor John Sweeney and his tireless efforts and vigilance in championing climate action and that of Dr. Andrew Jackson on this critical issue as well. As Deputy Bríd Smith said, the comments of Professor Sweeney should have been an alarm bell not just for the Minister but for all members of the Government when it came to this Bill. The Minister should heed what he says. An Taisce has recommended that any of the amendments that have come through should not be approved.

The Minister has an opportunity to do real good with this Bill, to create something that is strong that we can give and leave, safe in the knowledge that future Governments and Ministers will be held to account and that they will be legally compelled to meet our requirements. I trust the Minister’s bona fides on this. I believe that he wants to see this get through and that he honestly believes he will fulfil the commitments he has made. I have said from the very beginning that this legislation needs to be strong no matter which Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications is in power or what Government is in place. We can no longer have the politicisation of this issue. We must address it. We cannot put it off any longer. Unfortunately, the most recent amendments that have come through the Seanad-----

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