Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to be able to take part in this debate and to listen to statements on the development of the Climate Action Plan 2023, which was presented by the Government just before the Christmas break. I am also pleased that we have this opportunity to review it. We will continue to do so as we implement it in the coming year and continue to evolve it to meet what is the greatest challenge of our time, namely, to protect the stability of our climate system for future generations and to avoid the worst impacts of climate change that we already know is inevitable because of the change that is happening in our atmosphere.

For clarity, we have known the science of this for some 35 years or more. Going back to that period in the late 1980s, the concentration of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere was some 350 parts-per million, ppm. It took a number of years before the world started to address the reality of that science. A key moment in that regard was in 2015 – the signing of the Paris climate agreement - when 193 countries came together to commit to do what it would take to stabilise our climate, and doing so with all sorts of risks in avoiding crossing over tipping points that would see runaway climate change. When that was agreed only eight years ago, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had gone up to approximately 400 ppm. The frightening thing that raises alarm and the need for action is that today it is just short of 420 ppm. We are not going in the right direction. The scale of change has not been delivered. We must act now. This is the critical decade. What the Paris climate agreement said was that to reduce the risk of runaway climate change we must keep the global average temperature below 1.5°C. We must get to net-zero emissions by the middle of this century. For a developed country such as Ireland, that means we must halve our emissions this decade and be at net zero by 2050.

It is important to review it and to know where we are coming from in this regard. The initial legislation relating to a climate Act was set out in 2015, and the first climate plan was devised in 2017. An appropriate and correct Supreme Court judgment stated that it had not sufficiently addressed the scale of change we needed to make. It was on the back of that, and also the citizens’ assembly established in 2017, that we started on the path that brings us to this plan that we have today.

At the joint Oireachtas committee in 2018, all parties committed to a much more ambitious approach to how we reduce our emissions. In 2019, under the then Minister, Deputy Bruton, who deserves credit, a broad approach was initiated which we are still following, whereby we look at every aspect of the approach we need to take in government and set clear actions and timelines that we need to meet the objectives.

The programme for Government was established with climate as part of the three central ambitions of the Government. These are to address the housing crisis, reform our healthcare systems and show leadership in delivering climate action and emissions reductions. We followed the science. We stuck to what the Paris Agreement on climate stated we would have to do, which, in our case, meant an emissions reduction of approximately 7% per annum. This was based on a reduction target dating from 2018 because that was the period, during our entering into and signing of that programme for Government, for which we had the latest statistics. That is the broad context within which this plan is set out.

The Government has made significant progress through devising the much more thorough and powerful Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. By any analysis, this legislation is seen globally as the most ambitious, or the most rigorous, in holding the Government to account. The way it is set out requires a long-term vision and an iterative evolving plan with sectoral targets. Each Minister responsible for the relevant area has to show how we are meeting the overall targets. Since that period, sectoral emissions targets were developed in summer 2022, as required under law, which range in ambition from a 75% reduction in emissions for the likes of the electricity sector and a 50% reduction in emissions in transport, while industry varied between reductions of 35% and 40% down to 25% for agriculture. We are clear on the responsibilities each sector has. The climate action plan, agreed by the Government just before Christmas, turns those sectoral targets into specific measures in each of those sectors that we have to show can deliver the reductions we need.

The one exception, which has been debated at length in this House over the past year or so, relates to land use, land use change and emissions, where we committed this year to developing the scientific information we need to be able to make the further reductions that are needed for us to be able to meet our overall reduction target. I would prefer to have done that at the same time as the other sectoral emissions ceilings were being set, but we did not, and do not, have the information available to us to know exactly how we could or would do that. That is why it was more appropriate, as I said, to carry out that scientific analysis as part of the land use review, which I might return to, to make sure that what we are setting out is credible, achievable and based on good science. That is the only way we will be able to address this incredibly complex and challenging issue effectively.

I will add briefly, and this is key, that this process is iterative. It is one where the plan will evolve each year. Additional information and measures, changing circumstances, and reacting to what is actually happening, mean that this is a plan that is due to be revised, and has been, and will be, revised each year, which is the nature of the approach we are taking. That is the right way rather than setting out a ten- or 20-year plan and not actually taking into account what is happening. The key developments in this iteration of the plan, which is much more significant because it now has all the legal force of the 2021 climate Act behind it, and in assessing the report are outlined in chapters 12 to 16. I will concentrate my contribution on plans within the electricity industry, the built environment, transport and agriculture. I will briefly go over some of the key commitments in these areas, which frame what will be our whole economy in the coming years, including how we will have to deliver this as a just transition, and how we deliver these significant measures will be fought out and set right.

Electricity has the highest reduction target, based on what is achievable and what is in our interest in terms of the security of the country and its economic development. We should not be reliant on expensive imported fossil fuels but instead rely on our own resources. The commitment to go from some 5 GW of onshore wind power today to 6 GW in 2025, and subsequently 9 GW, is critical. We know we can do this. We know that we have a comparative competitive advantage. It is a sensitive issue in the context of planning and other local community issues, but that is a development we need to get right. In my expectation, a large part of the new power will be delivered by the likes of Coillte, Bord na Móna and others, when it comes to some of the land-bank areas in the midlands and elsewhere where we can do this in a sensitive way through working with local communities.

At the same time, this is a significant change in development from previous plans. We are setting a target within the next three years, which is incredibly challenging, to go to 5 GW of solar power and 8 GW by 2030. In the past 20 years, we have developed hardly any solar power. We started to ramp it up to 200 MW or 300 MW in the past year. That will exponentially increase in the coming years, as we put solar on our school rooftops and people's solar homes start to be deployed, but also as solar in the field is developed at scale. We need that level of deployment if we are to meet our targets, including our interim 2025 target under the three- to five-year budgeting framework. Reducing the cost to consumers and householders is also a key, critical, new development that will require huge effort for us to deliver it but we can and will do that.

Similarly, the development in this decade of 7 GW of offshore wind will include some 5 GW in phase 1 and phase 2 projects, which we expect will largely be on the east coast, before moving to southern and western waters. Offshore wind will also be deployed to convert energy into hydrogen, ammonia or other molecules that will give us a storage and export capability, which is central to our economic, and not just environmental, future.

As part of this renewable electricity future, we will also require 2 GW of further gas power infrastructure in order to be able in those periods when there are cold, high-pressure conditions - such as the likes of what happened before Christmas or this week - to have the back-up power to meet our energy needs. That will only be one component. A significant role will be played by batteries, pump storage, demand management flexibility, the use of smart metering and the use of some of the solutions in other areas, such as transport and heating, to give us storage capabilities and back-up flexibilities. This is the new industrial revolution of our time. We are good at it as a country. We are one of the leading countries in the world at integrating renewable power into a synchronised electricity grid system. We need to use that expertise, advantage and the capabilities we have through EirGrid, the ESB, the private sector, Bord na Móna, Coillte and other State companies to make this happen.

This is also a choice we need to make in industry, first, because of our national climate law but, second, because of European law. Some 20 Bills are going through the European Council and Parliament to trial out processes with the Commission at present, which will transform the European economy in this more digital, low-carbon, green future that the EU is setting us on. These are even higher targets than the ones set out in national law. We have to do this for Irish legal reasons to be part of the European solution but, in addition, there is no option not to take this route because industrial and business sectors are also going in this direction. They will look to work with governments and communities that are successful or have set themselves on the same path.

In industry, particularly in the area of heat, which tends to be the area that does not get attention but is the one we now need to focus on most to meet our targets, an inevitable transition is happening that we need to lead and accelerate rather than try to resist and hold back. Industry will deploy the use of heat pumps, in addition to them being used in our homes. For any high-grade heat, beneath perhaps a 200°C heat requirement, I see us switching away from the use of fossil fuels. We need to switch towards heat pumps instead from more than 50% by the middle of this decade to up to three quarters of new heating sources coming from that sort of supply by the end of this decade. We have everything to gain from that. There are significant efficiencies and competitive advantages but it is a transition that has to start and happen now.

The second element in the responsibility of industry relates to the construction sector.

I see the use of higher quantities of clinker within cement production as another way in which we can get significant reductions in CO2 emissions from the construction sector and industry. We also have to work on the percentage of embodied carbon within our building sector, including the use of cross-laminated wood products and other embodied carbon systems within our buildings. It is not just that we have to build all of these houses for people; we also need to start building with timber in new and different ways, based in the circular economy, that embed carbon in our buildings. By the end of this decade, up to 30% of the emissions reductions could come from that approach.

My last point on this industrial sector is that the whole emphasis will be on efficiency and this circular economy which, as I have said, is at the centre of the European Union strategy. The energy efficiency directive and the renewables directive, which has been agreed by the Council, will still steer us in that direction. We need to go with it rather than resist it. That is the best and most secure and stable form of economy for our country in the future.

I will refer to the built environment. I know I am touching on these key areas only fleetingly but getting this right was a key part of the substance of discussion within government. In the coming years, we have to get to net-zero emission and then zero emission buildings so that our buildings can be, as I have said, part of the solution rather than part of the problem. This is all doable. The technology exists in domestic heat pumps and in better insulation and air management and ventilation systems within our homes. We have everything to gain from this. It will not work if it is seen as a punitive or negative story. It is about creating healthier homes. It is the social justice project of our time because, by retrofitting our houses, as we plan to systematically do, we will end up with a country in which we can tackle energy poverty. We will be able to tackle it at the source by making sure that our buildings are fit for purpose and healthier. I particularly refer to our social housing stock and those on lower incomes. They are the ones we will prioritise within our retrofit programmes, which are working. We are on target. We introduced that scheme last February. It is innovative and extensive and provides widespread grants. It is delivering. We met our target of retrofitting 27,000 houses last year and we will meet our target again this year as we ramp it up to 37,000 houses. Yesterday, Deputy Harris showed that there has been a significant uptick in the number of people who are looking to work in the industry. We have put 2,000 people through the training and apprenticeship programmes that will help them get into this industry and we are only starting. We are only warming up. This is going to work because it involves a systematic approach over 30 years. The funding is guaranteed. It is being raised from the application of the carbon tax and a range of other different measures. That gives the signal to our young people and householders that this is the way to go.

I will move to my fourth point. I am conscious of time and, therefore, I cannot address these matters in great detail. I look forward to further debates in this House as we start to deliver. Transport may be the sector in which we have the biggest challenge. We have a problem in that, over the past 50 years, we have developed a car-oriented transport system and a pattern and model of sprawling housing in which it is difficult to achieve a low-carbon system. We are looking at a revolutionary change in transport and at bringing life, housing and activity back into the centre of our villages, towns and cities to reduce the overall volume of transport. We are talking about a quantum shift away from dependency on private cars. It is not about being anti-car or blaming individuals for their lifestyles or the daily choices they have to make. It is about recognising that, if everyone is driving, it will not work for everyone because our roads get clogged and it is not possible to keep up with that. In fact, the more you try to provide solutions by providing more road space, the more traffic you introduce, which sets you on a vicious cycle downwards. We need to change to a virtuous cycle, which is what this plan sets out to do. As I have said, we will do that by reducing the volume of travel. The target we are setting for ourselves is a 20% reduction in car kilometres. We will introduce the measures to deliver that because failing is not an option nor is ignoring the problem.

Like every other sector, transport has to play its part. We will do that through an increase of at least 50% in active travel, although I expect it to go further. We must create safe spaces on our streets and roads, which we have not done. We have created a hostile environment that is scaring people away from active travel solutions and that sees 30% of our morning traffic comprising children being driven to school rather than being able to get there through more sustainable methods that are better for them and their families. That has to change.

On a similar note, I will address the increase in public transport that will be needed as we await the big rail-based solutions, which, unfortunately, take time to build. We will introduce demand management measures through road space reallocation and parking strategies to provide the space the buses need to be able to get through traffic more quickly and to work for everyone. That will not be easy. It will require courage and commitment in local authorities across the country but, under the law, those authorities must also now react. They have to develop plans in tune with what the overall climate action plan says we need. That is what we are going to do to deliver change in transport, along with all of the other sectors.

I only have a minute and so cannot do full justice to the whole of my last point. Agriculture must also play its part. I believe it will do so and that it will achieve more because doing so will be good for Irish agriculture. Reducing our use of fertilisers is essential to meeting our climate targets and will also save farmers money. We will move towards a less intensive system but I believe we can get paid a higher price for our produce in that system. There will be a smaller national herd but the critical thing for farmers is their family income and how we protect family farms as we do this. We will increase their income by investing in anaerobic digestion, supporting moves to diversify towards tillage and other sectors and bringing in income from forestry and solar power, as I mentioned earlier. The key project for this year is advancing the land use review, which will give us a steer as to how to make further reductions in the area of land use, implement the nature restoration law here, deliver the type of forestry we need to restore biodiversity and reduce emissions and protect rural Ireland and see it thrive in a low-carbon future, which is possible and essential for this country's future and for the security and future of our children.

See this speech in context