Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue, but I note that it has been put forward on the deadline, echoing what seems to be the Government's usual style - rushing things through at the absolute last minute. There are a number of points that it is important to raise.

The Government is going to purchase 4.15 million carbon credits from Slovakia for a total of €2.9 million. This comes on the back of a further €121 million paid for by the taxpayer for failure to meet our 2020 emissions targets under the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

The State had committed to cut emissions across multiple sectors by 20% but fell far short of this target, missing it by 7%. This is disappointing, although certainly not surprising when we consider the legacy of the two previous Administrations, first a Fine Gael-led coalition and then a confidence-and-supply coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Climate rhetoric was not matched by decisive climate action where it mattered, a pattern that the current coalition Government seems determined to uphold.

We know Ireland is falling way behind most of its EU counterparts and that it is struggling to shake its reputation internationally as a climate laggard when it comes to actual action. While we have risen a few places, from 46th to 37th, on this year's climate change performance index, what matters most is this: Ireland remains an underperforming country. This is confirmed by this year's Sustainable Progress Index. Ireland is ranked a paltry ninth out of 14 comparable EU countries on the environmental dimension. For all this Government's talk, the progress is nowhere near good enough. The drivers behind our bad performance are hardly surprising. They are indicative of a Government that is acting as if the climate crisis and cost-of-living crisis were taking place elsewhere. It is mildly aware of them but happy to continue with business as usual. Yesterday, it asked us to cheer when it announced, in SEAI's quarterly progress report, that it had progressed by less than 2% towards its target to retrofit 500,000 homes to a B2 standard. If this is not walking with blinkered vision, I do not know what is. The climate crisis is not something we can ignore, nor is the fact that many ordinary families and workers are struggling to make ends meet. Energy poverty is at the highest level ever recorded. All of this is occurring in the context of rising polluting emissions and disproportionately high household - and state - reliance on fossil fuels.

We know our next set of targets will come in 2030. We also know we are already behind. There is a very real chance, perhaps even a likelihood, that Ireland will fall short yet again. Sinn Féin is certainly not alone in sounding the alarm about the dangers of staying on the current Government's trajectory. Friends of the Earth, Wind Energy Ireland, the EPA and the Climate Change Advisory Council, to name but a few, have all come forward to voice concern and warn about the likelihood and risk of failure. This is something we simply cannot afford. We cannot buy our way out of this one with the modern-day indulgence of carbon credits, by which an expensive piece of paper absolves us of our shortcomings. Even if we ignore the fact that any chance of creating a sustainable and liveable future is contingent on drastically cutting emissions, we simply cannot afford the estimated €8 billion that the failure to meet our 2030 climate targets would cost us.

The opportunity cost of spending nearly €125 million on carbon credits today is painful enough. How many homes could have been retrofitted with that money? How many solar panels and heat humps could have been installed? How many sustainable-energy communities could have been supported? How many families could have been lifted out of energy poverty? Although the price is high, it is not the Irish taxpayer who suffers most at the hand of such ineffectual policies; it is the poorest people on the planet, who are already feeling the full force of the climate crisis, regularly losing their homes, livelihoods and even lives. It is also the planet itself that pays the ultimate price. We heard several weeks ago that over half of all Irish plant species are in decline and that we are in the midst of an Irish biodiversity emergency. Environmentalists are not being alarmist when they say nature in Ireland is dying.

What does failing by €8 billion look like? The consequences of such an abject failure would be cataclysmic. We cannot let that happen. We need a change in approach. The focus here needs to be on driving down emissions. The plans exist but they need to be implemented. Where they are deeply inequitable in so many areas, they need to be altered to ensure there is a just transition – a just transition for everyone.

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