Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, I spoke of the Government being long on ambition but short on delivery in a number of areas, notably on the climate catastrophe. Europe’s temperatures are reaching record highs this week across the Continent. Human activity has warmed our planet at a rate not seen for 2,000 years. The consequences are unthinkable and the imperative to act is indisputable. Last week, I asked the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, if negotiations on sectoral emissions targets were being jeopardised, specifically by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I reminded him that a reduction in emissions targets for one sector would raise targets for other sectors to what Professor Hannah Daly has called implausible levels. We now know that the long-promised sectoral emission targets will not be published this week, as previously thought. Our concern is that in the last sitting week of the Dáil before the summer recess, we do not yet have clarity on when those targets will be published or whether we will have an opportunity to scrutinise them and, in particular, to see whether the targets for one sector will be set at a level so low that it will jeopardise the possibility of targets being reached in other sectors.

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