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

The annual State of the Global Climate report provides another damning indictment of our failure to adequately respond to and tackle climate change. Four indicators broke records last year, namely, ocean heat, ocean acidification, greenhouse gas concentrations and sea level rises. We are out of time. We are out of time. However, if we want to avert further damage, we need a just transition that takes people with us. We needed it a long time ago.

When the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 was passing through the Houses, there was extensive debate on the amendments proposed by the Opposition to strengthen and define exactly what a just transition would mean. Unfortunately, the Minister did not incorporate this principle into the Bill. A just transition is a concept that originates from within the global trade union movement and is central to a labour and social solidarity understanding of climate protection measures. Our transition to decarbonisation must be carried out in a fair and just way that will not adversely impact on those who are most affected by the cost-of-living and energy crises.

When I speak of a just transition, I mean the protection and creation of jobs, improved living standards and reduced emissions, protecting our biodiversity and generating new sustainable communities. We need a blueprint for the future and a structured dialogue that is inclusive of all stakeholders. We must ensure that investment to address our climate emissions and to meet our targets takes account of the need to bring people with us and to protect employment and communities. We need a flexible and accessible skills and education system to meet the needs of a net-zero economy and to address inequalities where transitions are occurring. As I said before, improving energy efficiency of the housing stock is an opportunity to do this.

Investment to restore peatlands, urban tree planting and woodland management are all ways in which we can action a just transition and ensure that communities are not hit in terms of employment opportunities. The recent controversy regarding turf is a prime example of the work that is needed to deliver a real just transition by addressing energy and security and protecting our bogs. The Labour Party has called for works in the context of retrofitting and energy efficiency measures for those homes that rely on sod turf to be accelerated. That will require financial investment through grant aid. There is no point in telling anyone who cannot afford to upgrade their home or to buy alternative fuels that they must change. The State needs to support them.

The Labour Party is in full support of the Just Transition Alliance and of its call for the urgent and immediate establishment of a national commission. Indeed, this is one of the first issues that was raised with the Taoiseach by Deputy Bacik when she became leader of the Labour Party. Apart from informing us of the extension of the contract of the current just transition commissioner until the end of the year, the Taoiseach did not shed any further light on when the commission will be established. What we need to see now is a date for the establishment of the just transition commission and the mandate of the of the commission. It must incorporate International Labour Organisation guidelines and must align with the UN sustainable development goals.

When the commission is fully established, we hope the Minister will use the experience gained in other jurisdictions, such as Scotland, Canada, Germany, Spain and New Zealand, to inform its work. The publication of detailed investment proposals and an action plans to deliver projects is necessary. Achieving that will require additional financing. In its most recent budget proposals, the Labour Party called for a doubling of the just transition fund and for increased investment in retrofitting. The midlands is not the only community at risk. We need a more ambitious response from the State. Accountability, implementation targets and transparency on decision-making must be central to the commission.

The question of preserving intergenerational solidarity will also be critical to its proposed work, because a younger generation is growing frustrated with the failure of those in charge to address the climate crisis. In Ireland, we have a problem with rising emissions and our emissions are going in the wrong direction. We cannot adequately plan for a just transition without the publication of sectoral emissions ceilings. The Minister of State might confirm when those will be published. We face immense challenges in the areas of transport, agriculture, food production, afforestation and electricity generation, to name just a few. We need to see those ceilings and to get to grips with the challenge. Crucially, we need the State to play a leading role in the energy sector. Why are we not directly financing offshore wind through the ESB and through other semi-States to retain those natural assets in public ownership?

I want to conclude on a point at that the Labour Party has made before. Our natural environment has suffered for too long from the impact of unregulated free markets and untrammelled economic growth. We must build an economic and class analysis into our response to the climate crisis, so that we do not see environmental policies in a silo. These cannot exist in a vacuum. We need a State that leads the charge on climate justice, developing a new model of climate-neutral growth through a just transition. That is why we need the commission now. Our economic planning and climate response must be in sync. These are two sides of the same coin. We need a new economy that generates wealth and that also supports emissions reduction. When my colleague, Deputy Bacik, became leader of the Labour Party, she said that in the coming months we will publish a new strategic economic plan for Ireland. It will put a clear emphasis on regional job creation and on a just transition.

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