Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Taoiseach spoke about the importance of honesty, but does he not need to be honest with the people about the climate action plan? Clearly, that plan is failing, and spectacularly so, it must be said. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, even if every planned measure in the plan was implemented in full, our emissions would only be reduced by 28%. The legally binding target is 51%. With just eight years to go to reach this target, our emissions are going up not down. Last year, our emissions increased by 6%. The Taoiseach says all the right things when it comes to the climate crisis: that climate change is the single greatest threat facing humanity and that the time to act is now. We all agree with that but climate rhetoric is not climate action. There is a plan, but little or no implementation. Even if there were, the planned measures are not sufficient to allow us to reach our targets.

It is as if the Government is setting us up to fail. That failure will not just be felt by the current generation, but by future generations also. If our emissions keep rising over the course of the lifetime of the Government, we will have lost the opportunity to reach our climate targets by 2030. There would simply be too much ground to make up and not enough time. Of course there are changes that we all must make but there are certain changes that can only be made by the Government. The public cannot put restrictions on the development of data centres, for example, which now use more electricity than all of the rural homes in this country. Neither can the public ensure a coherent planning and regulatory system is in place to develop our offshore wind potential, incentivise farmers to diversify or introduce a retrofitting scheme that people can actually afford. That is the Taoiseach's job. The big, bold measures that are needed, such as massive public infrastructure and projects like the metro to get people out of their cars are simply not happening quickly enough. Meeting our climate targets will not be easy. We all know that, and nobody should pretend that they will be, but we need a fighting chance, and we are not getting it from the Government.

First, what immediate changes is the Government going to make in response to the EPA report? Second, is it going to make changes to the retrofit scheme to make it more affordable for ordinary people? Third, when does he expect to see our emissions actually reduce?

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