Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution and for the Government not opposing our Bill. I congratulate my colleagues, Deputies Duncan Smith and Ivana Bacik for bringing forward this legislation. All of us in this House are possibly haunted by the fact that in 20 or 30 years’ time younger members of our family may be asking us what on earth we did when we had the chance to do something. That is why it is all our responsibility to do something. Any of us who think we can radically address this existential crisis without it involving any pain for anybody is fooling themselves. It shows zero political leadership for any political entity or grouping to suggest we can all live our lives as we have in the past and address this issue; we cannot.

Mary Robinson stated at COP26:

COP26 has made progress but nowhere near enough to avoid climate disaster. While millions around the world are in crisis not enough leaders were in crisis mode. People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty. Leaders have extended by a year this window of opportunity to avert the worse of the climate crisis. The world currently needs them to step up more decisively next year.

What she said on national radio this week really stopped me in my tracks. She said anyone under the age of 60 in our world is likely to have a world that is less liveable in, which is facing terrible fires, floods and droughts and millions of people having to leave their homes. Anybody under the age of 30 is sure to live in that world, and that is what we are talking about.

I am mindful of some of the very hot and heavy contributions that have been made to debates like this one in this Oireachtas and particularly this Dáil. Those who tend to make these hot and heavy contributions, and who accuse those of us who are trying to address climate change of driving a wedge between urban and rural Ireland, should ask themselves how many people in their families are under the age of 30 and what they will say to those family members in 30 years’ time. This is not about urban or rural Ireland; it is about all of us making an effective change and changing the ways in which we have been living.

We can make positive changes to the way we live by trying to understand what the carbon impact is of buying one product or service over another, which is what our Bill seeks to achieve. It can be difficult to see beyond the massive greenwashing of companies that are trying to tap into an increased appetite for change and at the same time hide or obscure the actual level of carbon which contributes to any product or service. We in the Labour Party are justifiably sceptical of any corporate entity which looks at the massive mobilisation of young people and wonders how it can tap into that consciousness and their ethic in order to make money.

In a shop or online, it should be easy to identify which of two products or services has a greater impact on global warming. This Bill seeks to put in place an independent and transparent carbon labelling system for all corporations. In the same way that people have nutritional data to manage their health, we need to provide clear carbon data in order that people can manage their climate impact. It also creates a clear way of comparing which companies are serious about working towards a liveable, sustainable future and those who are not. At present, customers still have no way to compare how companies are doing on their climate credentials. This leaves them open to misleading claims and confusing messages designed to persuade us that corporations are pulling their weight when many are not. I often think of the phrase "recyclable versus recycled".

In early 2020, Ryanair made a claim that it was the UK's lowest emission airline. The statistics it used were completely misleading based on data from 2011 and left out many of its leading competitors. There is no way big corporations like Ryanair will magically publish accurate and independent measures of unflattering climate change data. At present, so-called green measures are more likely driven by marketing departments trying to tap into ethical consumer dollars. Companies that are making genuine strides to be low-carbon suppliers find it genuinely hard to differentiate themselves against the claims and counter-claims from their less scrupulous competitors.

As spokesperson on enterprise and employment for the Labour Party, it is essential we reward those companies which are doing things right by giving them an independent, transparent and standardised mechanism for showing their customers they are working to help to save us all. Businesses which are paying marketing lip service can be forced to publish their carbon sums in order that they can be monitored, tested and interrogated. We need honest data and information to allow us to publicly support those who are on the side of the fight against climate change and to abandon those who are not pulling their weight.

This Bill is not a magic bullet. We do not pretend that it is. The State will have to go way beyond labelling in managing a just transition to a liveable future but this Bill sets out a straightforward mechanism for the Government to let us start, at least, to monitor and measure the carbon impact of everyday choices in living our lives. I hope this Bill will be supported by all parties as a positive step towards the change that we need. There is no doubt there are a thousand different areas where we need to take action. This Bill is a small but nonetheless essential component in allowing people to make positive climate choices when they spend their money. We think climate change is too important to play games with.

Representatives from all parties and groupings in this Oireachtas should work to support each other and help to lead our people into a just transition to a more sustainable future. Often the struggle within parties will be as important as those between parties. The Labour Party is particularly aware of the work of Labour Youth in championing action on climate change as a core Labour Party value. I would ask those young people who are supporters of other political parties to exert all the pressure they can on their own political movements to ensure the vast majority of this Dáil is united in doing what needs to be done. We need to support those in government or in opposition when they take principled stances to support climate measures. We need to reach across party lines to help each other in the political world to make the right choices. If those of us who are serious on this issue could work together in opposition and in government to do the right thing always and not just oppose taxes or painful choices to cause difficulty for the Government, then we in Ireland can become leaders, not laggards, in international climate action.

This Bill is a step towards that process. In ten, 15, 20 or 30 years, I want to be able to say I did everything in my power to make the changes we needed when the call was made. Supporting this Bill and acting on the outcomes is a small part of that commitment.

See this speech in context