Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had the privilege in 2018 of attending COP24 in Katowice, Poland. It is difficult to imagine a construct less conducive to effective decision-making than the structure the Minister dealt with at COP27. In that context, I congratulate him for snatching victory, in certain terms, particularly on the issue of compensation for poorer countries for the damage inflicted on them by the developed world. That is a significant development but it is possible to argue there was some regression from progress made in COP26. The terminology in COP26 concerned the phase down of unabated coal and phase out of inefficient fuel subsidies. There was no mention in the conclusions of COP27 of progress on that.

While acknowledging the Minister's achievement, I urge him to be cautious of failure to build on the commitments achieved. They are not insignificant. They have been around for 30 years but it is the first time tangible progress has been made on them in terms of compensation for the most affected nations, the small island nations literally in danger of being drowned by our failure to act in time on climate issues.

I urge the Minister to engage with Simon Steele of the United Nations, who is the chief architect of this structure, on the reform of it. Two things need to be done. The structure is like the ploughing championship on steroids. Is it any wonder the outcomes are compromised when Saudi Arabia has a pavilion of 1,000 sq. m while Malawi has 9 sq. m? Nepal and Afghanistan are not represented at all. Large corporations with deep pockets are wine and dining and doing deals on the margins. We need to separate the jamboree element of it. I acknowledge we need engagement with the fossil fuels industry. We need just transition and to use natural gas and liquefied natural gas as a way of transitioning out of dependence on fossil fuels. However, we need the jamboree out of the way before decision-makers of 200-plus nations gather to make real decisions. The construct in place at the moment is not conducive to effective decision-making. The Minister could usefully insist and demand in the coming 12 months that there be a change in that decision-making process. That is critical. There were 45,000 attendees and 600 registered lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry.

It is a cocktail that is designed to impair rather than facilitate progress on the critical issues of our time.

I wish to make an observation about the climate debate in Ireland. I agree with the points made by others about the poverty of the climate debate domestically, which is reduced almost to a finger-pointing exercise. Depending on where one comes from, I will defend farmers and somebody else will defend the gas guzzlers lining up outside south County Dublin schools to pick up children. We all need to contribute more. If we were to resolve the issues of data centres or agriculture as their critics would have them, we would still have an enormous amount to do. We need to broaden that debate.

One of the areas where we are missing a trick is on mainstreaming the approach to the circular economy. The early motto of the environmental movement was reduce, reuse, recycle, and we need to re-embrace that. I welcome the progress announced during the week on the incentives to recycle plastic bottles to meet targets which puts a greater onus on plastic recycling. That is important. It is important to acknowledge that more demanding directives are coming from the EU now. That is a way to engage the broader population on a genuine commitment.

The term “conspicuous consumption” was used in a different context in terms of people’s purchasing power and how offensive it can be. We need to apply the term “conspicuous consumption” in the context of the climate change agenda. We are all, as consumers, conspicuously consuming excessively and contributing to the damage we are doing our global environment. By embracing reduce, reuse, recycle and repair, there is a pathway for all citizens to engage in a constructive positive way in the climate change agenda because we all need to change our modus operandi, namely, the manner in which we engage, the manner in which we consume and the manner in which we spend our hard-earned money. That is how we can get greater buy-in from the public on the climate change agenda, which is the challenge of our time.

See this speech in context