Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am glad to introduce this important Bill on behalf of the Labour Party. Following the publication of the Government's climate action plan and the conclusion of the COP26 talks in Glasgow last week, we have seen increased urgency and increased public focus on the need to take urgent measures to tackle the climate crisis and the need to ensure we put in place a just transition and climate justice measures. In all of our constituencies, such as my own in Dublin Bay South, we see individuals, households and communities coming forward wanting to contribute to our communal effort to tackle our carbon emissions and bring about a genuinely decarbonised society. However, we need supports to do this. That is why we are introducing this Bill. We in the Labour Party are a party of serious environmentalists. We are serious about offering practical ways to meet our climate targets. That seriousness of intent was evident at our party conference at the weekend in the Mansion House, where we passed some important motions on climate and where I informed delegates this Bill was just one of a package of measures we would be introducing in the Dáil and which we see as essential to enable us to reach those vital targets of a 51% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

What does this Bill propose to do and what is carbon labelling? Carbon labelling seeks to give consumers greater information on the environmental impact of goods they will purchase, in other words, the carbon footprint of those goods. Consumers are currently faced with difficulties when seeking to buy sustainably and to buy in a more environmentally friendly fashion. Currently, there is an absence of an overall standard scheme on how to calculate or communicate a product’s carbon footprint to consumers. Increasingly, however, we are seeing moves at international, national and, indeed, corporate levels to develop those standards. There is a clear need for independent, verifiable and universal standards and specifications. The scheme under this Bill would empower consumers by enabling informed choices to be made. It would encourage the purchase of goods with lower environmental impact. That is exactly what this Bill seeks to do.

Carbon footprint labels being developed attempt to itemise all greenhouse gas emissions relief through the product life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials through to manufacture, distribution, use and eventual disposal. Consumers are increasingly demanding this information. Companies are increasingly moving to introduce their own labelling systems. Just this year, big multinationals such as Unilever announced the introduction of labels across thousands of their products. We see legislatures moving to do this. In Colorado, the "Buy Clean Colorado" Bill, which was passed earlier this year, had the same intent. We are increasing momentum around this at EU level. In the circular economy action plan, published in March 2020, the European Commission proposed a revision of consumer law to ensure consumers receive relevant information on products at point of sale. The Commission is also proposing that companies would substantiate environmental claims. It is considering setting minimum requirements for sustainability labels and other information tools. We see this work going on at transnational level. Indeed, we are likely to see significant progress in the near future on the setting of carbon footprint standards. A harmonised EU approach is clearly the preferable way forward on rolling out this system.

We are also seeing already significant progress at national level. That is what this Bill seeks to do - to build on that. The National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, the statutory framework on which we based this Bill, is our official standards body. It operates under the National Standards Authority of Ireland Act 1996 and is accountable to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. As the State's official standards body, its function is to inspire consumer confidence through a recognisable and reliable infrastructure of standards for products. The NSAI is already working on developing ways to measure carbon footprints. It is doing so with reference to the International Organization for Standardization, ISO, 14060 suite of standards and guidelines, which seeks to develop a set of auditable tools to help address climate change through a systematic approach to greenhouse gas quantification, monitoring, reporting, validation and verification. The NSAI is already offering an auditing and verification service against a number of ISO 14060 standards. This gives us a basis on which we can develop this scheme of carbon accreditation.

We are also seeing civil society pushing forward on this. For example, the NGO, the Carbon Trust, which has been established on our neighbouring island, is already working with companies there to help them measure, manage and reduce the footprint of their products. It provides a blueprint for a product carbon footprint label, which provides consumers with verified information. It provides footprints on a cradle-to-gate basis, used for business-to-business products, measuring emissions from the extraction of raw materials, through to product manufacture, and up to the factory gate. It also provide cradle-to-grave footprints for business-to-consumer products, which is the model we are seeking to develop through this Bill and through the scheme to be established under it.

The Carbon Trust follows a product carbon footprint protocol consisting of a carbon life cycle assessment and additional specific rules to certify the footprint according to type of label. There were a number of different labels. It is a useful model to see how practically this could work. Since we launched the Bill yesterday, we have had huge goodwill and support from members of the public for the principle behind it. The question we have been asked is how it would work in practice. It is worth saying we have models elsewhere, we see this working in practice elsewhere, and there is already a momentum for this.

This Bill is not some sort of far-fetched or utopian vision. It seeks to establish, in a very practical way, a framework for providing consumers with necessary information to help them make sustainable choices.

To return to how this would work in practice, we see the Carbon Trust providing a reducing CO2 label for some products, showing their footprint is reducing year on year and that the company is committed to achieving footprint reductions, in addition to a reducing CO2 packaging label to show the packaging's carbon footprint is also decreasing. We are familiar with other sorts of verification schemes around calorie counting products, nutritional information, fair trade and sustainable production, which are very well-established labelling schemes. Our Bill would build on these frameworks already in place and with which we are all very familiar. It seeks to confer powers on the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, the existing body with responsibility in this area, to develop standards to give information about the carbon footprint of commodities and thus to require reporting of greenhouse gas emissions on that cradle-to-grave basis. We want to make it easier for people to take steps to reduce their impact on the environment with this Bill. We know that if we could see this information clearly, it would enable us to make those informed choices.

It also places an onus on companies and corporates to stop flag-flying on climate issues. It would expose those who are carrying out what we might describe as greenwashing and would give credit to those who are taking the challenge seriously and taking substantive steps to reduce their carbon footprint. We know the term "greenwashing" was coined in the 1980s following a series of advertisements commissioned by the oil giant, Chevron, in an attempt to convince the public of its environmental bona fides. Deputies may recall its advertisements showing feel-good pictures of forest, woodland and so on, which diverted attention from the immense environmental damage being done by fossil fuel production. The term "greenwashing" has entered the lexicon and we know this is still a practice that may be used to fool customers into buying products that are not in fact environmentally sustainable. As legislators, we need to devise a scheme that will address the practice of greenwashing and give consumers real choice based on independently verified information. We in the Labour Party, as red greens or as green reds, have always sought to achieve a balance between the interests of consumers and those of society in a way that does not place undue obstacles on business but nonetheless recognises the responsibility of corporates and manufacturers in this regard. We are seeking to rebalance power between consumers, or individual citizens, and corporations.

I will briefly mention the issue of gender equality and climate. I am very glad to have been nominated chairperson of the new special Oireachtas committee on gender equality. I note that, as former President Mary Robinson has said, "Climate change is a man-made problem ... [with] a feminist solution". In any new climate scheme we introduce, we need to be mindful of the gendered impact of climate change. We have seen that the UN estimates 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. All of us know the impact of the climate crisis upon women, in particular. I mention that because the impact of the climate crisis on gender is something I will be very mindful of in my role on the committee on gender equality. In that context, it is worth mentioning that International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is next Thursday.

I welcome the Government's engagement on this matter and the amendment it has put forward in the sense that it shows constructive engagement. We in the Labour Party are about constructive engagement on this. We will accept the amendment, but we will hold the Government to account to ensure that, in 12 months' time, the Bill will be read a Second Time.

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