Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The latest IPCC report has highlighted that, to limit global warming, major changes in the energy sector will be required. It effectively says that we are sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe. Under current plans, the next generation of offshore wind farms will not produce electricity until 2026 at the earliest while a microgeneration scheme that pays households for producing excess green electricity is still not in place. There have been too many delays, announcements and re-announcements. This is not good enough. We need a step change in the pace of delivery across the board. The IPCC has confirmed that time is running out to save the planet and that meeting Paris Agreement targets will require a real and immediate national effort.

That the Climate Action Delivery Board only met once between 2020 and 2021 is a scandal as well as a serious cause for concern about how climate policy is being driven from within the Government. The Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform cannot be allowed to be passengers in the process; they must be drivers. We need serious progress on the sectoral carbon budgets process, as set out in the climate Act, and a whole-of-government approach. An updated climate change adaptation plan is essential to meet the challenges ahead.

The Government should adopt elements of the Scottish climate Act, which requires a just transition. The impact on vulnerable communities must be set out and responded to. This approach has been backed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and we need to listen to them. A just transition must be a proactive process and it must be integral. It cannot be an afterthought. It must not just focus on Bord na Móna workers, deserving and all as they are. It must also consider rural and farm communities.

Sinn Féin supports the carbon budgets prepared by the CCAC. This is consistent with our position on the climate Bill and our support for the 2030 and 2050 emission reduction targets. The carbon budgets are the council's best estimate for how emissions could, and should, be reduced between now and 2030. While we support the targets, we have serious concerns about the approach that the Government is taking to achieving them.

I commend the work of Kildare County Council in this regard and its recently published just transition plan for west Kildare. The plan's focus identifies projects that support and advance sustainable social, economic and environmental development in the transition to a low-carbon future in the region. Councils must be provided with funding to ensure such plans are developed and implemented locally. It is not enough to compliment their plans and move on. The Government must provide the money to enable councils to bring these plans into reality.

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