Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach made a fine speech at COP27. He stated:

If this generation doesn't step up urgently, future generations will not forgive us.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to drive the transformation necessary

In Ireland, the government has set legally binding emission reduction targets of 51% by 2030, and has committed Ireland to becoming climate-neutral by 2050.

The only problem is, he did not mean a word of it. He did not mention the fact that we were going to miss all of those targets and that, instead of reducing, emissions in agriculture, electricity and transport were actually increasing this year. He did not mention the €30,000 per month agreed in the budget for data centres, which are now responsible for using more electricity than all of the rural homes in Ireland combined. He did not mention the continued commitment to the industrialised model of agriculture, which is our No. 1 emitter of carbon, and the refusal to move away from it. He did not mean a word of this. He is a gross hypocrite.

The problem for the whole world is that he is not the only one. All of the world's leaders are in it together. It is why they can come together, say they are going to save the 1.5 ^oC target, agree a set of targets nationally that amount to an increase in temperature of 2.7 ^oC, and actually be on track for an increase of something like 3.5 ^oC. Those who are suffering the most are the people suffering from floods in Pakistan and from drought in China and the hundreds of thousands of people who are likely facing death in the Horn of Africa as a result of famine caused by climate change.

Words are fine but, as the UN Secretary-General said, politicians and big business are saying one thing but doing another. He said: "Simply put, they are lying." The reason they are lying is because they are wedded to an ecocidal capitalist system that is based around the profits of the big fossil fuel corporations globally and, in this country, the profits of big agribusiness. That is why we have to overthrow this system and we need eco-socialist change.

I wish to raise a point about loss and damage. Last year, the EU, with the backing of the Irish Government, betrayed billions of people in the global south by refusing to back a loss and damage fund at COP26. It was devastating for all of those who had been campaigning for many years. It was the defining failure of COP26. Rich countries are responsible for 90% of the emissions that are causing climate breakdown, but the most serious effects hit those in the global south. A loss and damage fund is a crucial issue at COP27. Can we get a clear commitment that the Government will not repeat last year's betrayal and will give its unequivocal backing for the establishment of a loss and damage fund at COP27?

I wish to address the energy charter treaty. In recent days, we have been treated to all sorts of nonsense by the Taoiseach, who has told us how investor court systems are a normal part of trade and so on. Ireland is only part of one investor court system at the moment, that being the energy charter treaty's. It is a rotten treaty designed to protect energy companies' investments and profits, which in practice means protecting the interests of fossil fuel companies. Through it, we are signed up to an investor-state dispute settlement system, the only one unless we ratify the CETA investor courts. Oil, gas and coal firms have already been awarded more than €100 billion under the energy charter treaty. To quote The Guardian, "As countries have sought to curb their emissions in line with the Paris climate agreement after 2015, the number of claims being brought has exploded." For this reason, many European states are leaving the energy charter treaty or have announced that they will. Italy has withdrawn and other major EU states, including Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Slovenia and the Netherlands, have announced their intention to withdraw from this unjust and environmentally criminal treaty. Will the Irish State be withdrawing from this anti-environment, anti-worker and pro-fossil fuel company treaty?

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