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

On the timelines with regard to carbon budgets, we have to be careful here because the Climate Change Advisory Council is independent in the way it has been established and in the way it sets out its work. However, I understand it is meeting on 25 October, which is next week, and I hope and expect, subject to it being satisfied with its process, that it will be able to issue the first of the two carbon budgets for the first and second five-year periods bringing us to the end of the decade. I expect it will also publish supporting documentation to show the research that has been undertaken in the Climate Change Advisory Council to justify the approach it will recommend to the Government. The appointment of the full complement of four final members of the Climate Change Advisory Council had to await the enactment of the Bill before it could be done under proper statute. There was also the drafting of regulations, which we have now agreed. That allows the council to progress with its carbon budgets to outline which greenhouse gases we account for. That had to be done first before the council could then publish its budget.

Once it does that, we expect that very quickly - 3 November in the following week is my indicative timeline - the Government will consider a draft climate action plan which we will issue in response. We have been working a great deal on this in advance. That will contain extensive details. Similar to the previous plan adopted by the then Minister, Deputy Bruton, it will contain a wide series of actions and main chapter headings setting out the strategic direction we need to take in this area. It is transformative beyond compare because the 50% reduction in emissions requires us to completely change our energy system, transport system, land use and agricultural system and industrial systems for the better. We can and will do this.

Much of the work that has been done has fed into some of the key measures that have been put in place in the last month. The key emphasis in Housing for All on town centre first and compact development was informed by what we know we will have to do on the transport side in our carbon budget. In the national development plan there were just two Departments which had full clarity on their ten-year capital programmes - €35 billion in the case of the Department of Transport and €12.9 billion in the case of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. We needed that clarity to be able to give the sectors the Deputy mentioned certainty about the scale of investment the Government will have to make and, in many cases, the back-up scale that will be needed for other investments. A huge amount of work has been done. We will have it in time to go to COP26 with a draft climate action plan from Ireland to give it a sense of where we are going to proceed. However, the real challenge now will be implementing it at the speed and scale that are necessary to meet the correct calls of concern from the climate strikers.

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