Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My biggest concern with the climate action plan is the place within it for the just transition and what I considered to be a lukewarm commitment to it. The transition to carbon neutrality must be achievable and affordable across the whole of society and not just for the select few. As I state consistently at the climate committee, it would be damaging to social cohesion and democracy itself if we were to have a two-speed State where the privileged inhabit a world of heat pumps, solar panels and EVs while the less well-off are left out in the cold and in the bitter cold of their homes. I tell anyone who is listening that Sinn Féin simply is not going to put up with that. I call upon the Green Party to back us up in that regard too.

I am also anxious we avoid siloed thinking and silver bullets. As we have seen with Covid where the vaccine alone is not a single solution, EVs, offsets and aspiration are no cure for the climate crisis. When it comes to EVs we must take due account of the social and cultural damage they are doing to communities far away from Ireland. Some are living in virtual slavery for the production of parts for what is being presented as this new green technology. We cannot expect exploitative, capitalist corporations to oversee human rights abuses.

I would also like to see a major input and action from the sort of organic farmers who appeared before us at the climate committee a few weeks ago. As I said to them on the day, if climate action was up to them, we would be halfway there. There are farmers, and plenty of them, who have a major commitment to biodiversity and working in harmony with the land as opposed to exploiting it for profit, as seems to be the intention of some farming lobbyists. These lobbyists remain extremely powerful. In our alternative budget, Sinn Féin provided for three times the investment in organic farming when compared with the budget introduced by the Government. That should be looked at again. Incentivising all who work on the land to protect and conserve must take precedence over the carte blancheto exploit and profiteer. We must remember that as a human species, and a very arrogant one at that, we are part of nature and not above it or separate from it. At present we are acting like total parasites and Mother Nature does not take prisoners.

I do not see any recognition or wisdom in the plan for the radically-changed times ahead, as we tackle this existential crisis. I have further concerns that it leaves too much to the individual and his or her responsibility and does not put enough pressure on corporates. The Government feels its place is to serve them.

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