Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last year, the Taoiseach returned from Glasgow having apparently signed up to a pledge to cut methane emissions by 30%. When he got off the plane, however, we discovered that the State had no intentions of doing anything like that. I would like the Taoiseach to address this matter because it may appear that a similar sleight of hand is on display after the lofty rhetoric in Sharm el-Sheikh. There are reports from the EU Council that Ireland has voted to exclude financial investments and funds from the EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive. This means, as an Oxfam report recently showed, that a huge proportion of the emissions causing climate warming on the planet are caused by the wealthiest people and that the fossil fuel industry will continue to be funded and will have no problem getting the funds it needs in order to have a boom in gas infrastructure globally. Ireland is leading the charge, along with Luxembourg, to exclude financial investors from this very important sustainability directive. Will the Taoiseach please address that?

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