Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Two weeks ago, the EPA presented its report on greenhouse gas predictions for the next two decades, the conclusions of which were no surprise to most of us. We have done a lot on climate, but there is still a significant challenge ahead. We have set up the legislative framework, are close to meeting our green targets across all sectors of the economy to reduce emissions and have an ambitious roadmap in place.

I agree with Deputy Bruton that we have a lot more to do. I also agree with his statement that the message that we can build a prosperous future by clinging to old practices and behaviours is false and we need to embrace the reality that we must fundamentally change how we do transport, agriculture, heating and electricity generation. It is one thing to have targets in place, but it is an entirely different matter to implement these targets in bringing about the systemic change that is necessary.

We cannot afford to get distracted and play politics. We need all of the Government, the Opposition, State agencies, local government and the public sector to realise their role in this transition, internalise the concept of sustainability in every walk of life and start delivering climate action every day. We also need the private sector, including businesses, communities and individuals, to play their part and step up to achieve the ambition.

While we face a significant challenge, we have made solid progress in many areas. Our national retrofit plan looks to be one of the best home energy upgrade schemes in Europe and will create thousands of jobs. Upgrading 500,000 homes over the next decade to B2 standard or higher will ensure that people are living in comfortable and healthy homes that they can afford to heat.

We are making immense strides in the renewable energy sector. We currently generate over 40% of our electricity from renewable sources. I studied renewable energy systems 20 years ago. Back then, it was deemed impossible to get to 20% renewable generation within this or any timeframe. The belief was that the grid could not do that. We not only got there but doubled the figure because of the policies the Green Party put in place when it was in government the last time.

We have great ambition for the offshore wind sector in the Maritime Area Planning Act, which was passed at the end of last year. It established for the first time a consenting process for offshore wind energy and the first grid scale solar farm was connected in Wicklow in response, as previous Deputies mentioned.

Yesterday, as Deputy O'Sullivan mentioned, the results of the renewable energy support scheme were announced which gives the green light to almost 2,000 MW of onshore wind and solar farms. We are removing the barriers and making way for climate action to take place. I agree with Deputy Cowen's remarks that we need to look at planning, but we need to be careful that when we reform the planning and development Acts we maintain the right of stakeholders to have a meaningful input into the planning process.

We have to be realistic. We are not on track to reduce emissions in Ireland at a level anywhere close to our fair share globally. We are at risk of not meeting the targets we set, namely, the 51% reduction by 2030, unless we manage to do everything that is in our current climate action plan and more.

Agriculture is a big emitter of greenhouse emissions and in Ireland we need to focus our efforts on supporting farmers to continue to grow healthy nutritious food to feed our people.

I am afraid we are not doing that just yet. We need a proper and nuanced conversation about food. Often the debate is reduced to herd numbers. I see plans from the agriculture industry to increase the number of dairy cattle and to decrease the number of suckler cows, leaving herd numbers slightly lower than they are now. The EPA notes that dairy cows produce more methane per annum than any other cattle, so such an overall decline in animal numbers will not lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Transport is another sector we really need to get more serious about. We need to reorient our thinking to a "if you build it, they will come" mentality. Just last week the consultation on the revised draft Limerick-Shannon metropolitan area transport strategy ended. It is a great improvement on the original draft, which was almost unanimously rejected. The ambition of the new strategy, however, is nowhere close to where we need to be. It is acknowledged in the strategy that all the proposed elements in it will result in just a 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We need to get to 50% or greater. We need a fundamental change in transport over the next decade. I have said it before and I need to keep saying it: we need an extremely ambitious plan for our public transport, rail in particular. I was working on a submission for the strategy last week. While it is much improved, it just is not enough to meet our targets. We can have a new train station in Raheen, Limerick, where there are already more than the Project Ireland 2040 employment projections in the industrial estate at 5,000. We will be at 8,000 within this decade. That necessitates a public transport plan. Similarly, as for the Waterford-Limerick train line, we see that a report recently showed that, despite improving services, there will be just a 0.3% increase in demand. Something is terribly wrong there. We need to induce public transport demand rather than waiting for it to come. Local authorities often cannot build cycle lanes and walking infrastructure because of opposition in favour of continued unfettered access for private cars. We have seen that in Galway and Dublin, where there are plenty of examples of it.

Moving from local politics to national politics, if I may echo Deputy Alan Farrell's and Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan's comments, we have seen political point scoring undermining climate action, from Bills that would ban wind turbines to motions calling for drilling for oil in Irish waters and maintaining industrial-scale turf cutting to agitation around critical enabling infrastructure and opposition to the polluter-pays principle in action. We see point scoring here today. We see the politicisation of climate action, with Members barking up the wrong tree for solutions. Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. If we are to solve it, we need to change how we do politics and work together.

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