Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I also thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Private Members' motion regarding not increasing the carbon tax this year. No doubt members of the Green Party in the Government will accuse those of us who support this motion of not taking the question of climate change seriously enough. I assure them that I take the issue of climate change and global warming very seriously. As things stand, we are heading for a 4°C increase in global warming by the end of the century, with a distinct probability of mass extinction of life on the planet. Even with the reduction in emissions targets being agreed, but not mandatory, we are heading for a 2°C increase by 2050. As a socialist, I am in favour of a just transition to a new, environmentally sustainable and truly just society. One cannot have a just transition to a green economy while maintaining a social and economic system which is based on injustice at its very foundation. A recent report by Oxfam estimated that the richest 1% of the world's population accounted for more than 15% of cumulative emissions between 1990 and 2015, more than twice the combined emissions of the poorest 50%, at 7%. The poorest on the planet are least responsible for climate change and suffer from its catastrophic effects. We never hear a leading voice in the Green Party highlighting these issues. Its solutions are based purely within the confines of capitalism and, for that reason, they will not succeed.

Carbon taxes are the main plank of Green Party policy. Many ecologists question their effectiveness in reducing emissions. For the well-off, carbon taxes as they stand are easily absorbed, and there is no great pressure to reduce energy and fossil fuel use. The least well-off have maybe cut back on their heating and electricity already. They may be living in a rural area with no public transport and be dependent on a car for shopping, getting children to school and so on. Those having to use oil for heating have already seen the price increase by 50%. What do they do? They have to heat their home and use electricity. They cannot afford the €20,000 to €25,000 needed to avail of a retrofit grant or come up with the more than €30,000 for an electric vehicle. Consumption in this area cannot be reduced so all carbon tax will do is make them more expensive.

Carbon taxes can be part of the solution to reduce emissions but they must be progressive. The carbon tax regime here is regressive. It impacts mostly on those who can least afford them or take measures to reduce their consumption. The less people have, the more they are affected. It should not be beyond the capacity of the Government to develop, as a matter of urgency, with the aid of economists and ecologists, a range of options for a system of progressive taxes which will be much more effective in gaining public support and reducing emissions. The policy of ring-fencing the income from carbon taxes by subsidising action on climate change is something that I support, but there is a problem with the retrofit grant scheme. It is simply not feasible for many households to borrow the €20,000 or more needed to avail of the scheme.

In reality, people are being asked to pay a tax to fund a scheme that they cannot avail of. That is unjust. In order to avoid the catastrophe of a new mass extinction, which would be the sixth in the history of our planet, we need much more than regressive carbon taxes. The only just transition will be a just transformation to a completely new social and economic order, based not on the interests of the few but on the real needs of the many.

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