Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Ryan, on his achievement. Multilateral discussion and negotiation is vital for progress in this area because otherwise we have beggar-your-neighbour policies, and that would bring us all down together. Mobilising countries to make these commitments is a difficult task because we even hear the free-rider argument being advanced here in Ireland, along the lines that we are only tiny and we should not be making an effort. What is encouraging is the USA and Brazil are much more engaged this time round, which is a source for some optimism. It is to be hoped China and India will also increase their commitments.

We had an interesting hearing today in our committee about how little research there is on how transformative change of this scale can be brought about by political action and not by some technological disruptive impact. There is very little research into how this is to be done but there is great consensus that we need a big system change.

Like Deputy Haughey, sometimes I despair when I come into this House and hear people who keep advocating for more and more ambition, but when it comes to basic changes that would change the system, like setting prices for activities that are damaging, they shy away and say they cannot have that, they just want subsidies for whatever pet projects they have. The reality is we must design new market structures, new regulations and new pricing regimes, and that will be very hard to negotiate with the public and on which to bring the public with us. We should set aside some of what I believe is cynical finger-pointing, be it at farming or data centres. They are not the issue here. We must bring about radical change in the way we live our lives, and there is no getting away from that.

I have said this to the Minister of State previously. It is a pity his senior Minister and the Taoiseach are not here. It is that I believe the circular economy, of which he is the pioneer, is a big element of how we might successfully bring communities with us, because it embraces the wider issue of how we consume as well as how we produce. This week, the Minister of State will have seen the report from the ESRI where we generate 61 million tonnes of carbon in terms of production but our consumption is 107 million tonnes of carbon. We import embedded carbon of 65 million tonnes in products we bring into this country. That is enormous. That is the cars and construction materials we use. We do not have sufficiently circular concepts being applied in those marketplaces to cut down on the use of materials, to use them frugally and to recover them when they are at the end of their use. Let us not forget that while 55% of emissions come from fossil fuels, 45% come from these other materials we use without proper regard. The Minister of State should be banging the drum and asking the Taoiseach shortly to change. He must say the circular economy should be at the heart of the climate plan and that the concepts that are more embracing of the whole supply chain are the ones that can bring the public with us. I strongly advocate that.

We saw today as well that young people are acutely conscious of the urgency of this but have little enough information as to how to bring it about. The circular concept can help people to be informed. I hope that if we keep knocking on the door of others, they will open it and put the Minister of State's work at the heart of the strategy.

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