Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The debate focuses on our binding requirements to meet climate-reduction targets under EU legislation and compliance agreements. The framework the Minister of State referred to is the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2013 to 2020, or the last nine years. The framework at EU level provides for various compliance options beyond our making direct emission reductions, including the partaking of the trade of annual emissions unit, that is, a way for us to buy our way out of missing our targets on climate reduction. He said Ireland has, through negotiation with other member states, entered into an agreement to purchase climate credits from Slovakia which will help us meet our obligations under the EU sharing decision. The cost of the initiative is €2.9 million. He said that by 2030, were we to continue in such a vein, the costs would be significantly higher and I am sure punitive damages will also be levied on Ireland for our failure to meet our climate reduction targets. The target he mentioned was a 42% reduction on the 2005 level up to 2030. That is not too far off a 50% reduction, that is, half. How are we to meet these ongoing reductions? How is climate reduction measured? I have raised climate calculators here before. The EU has a climate calculator that we are all working to. Others dispute how it is measured.

There is also carbon sequestration, particularly in our woodlands and hedgerows. When will we get a landscape that measures the sequestration that we are doing in Ireland, that is, our hedgerows, pasture lands and woodlands? How is that taken into Europe’s analysis of our carbon and our climate emissions?

I have also raised here before the very slow pace of our renewables development. These Houses recently passed legislation to allow planning permission to be set aside, particularly for farm buildings, to put up solar units. However, the grant aid is hard to understand. People are having difficulty understanding what the schemes are and how to access them, what the level of support is and what the feed in tariff should be. We need to start getting onto this. We are here talking about reducing our climate burden but we cannot do it until we start generating our own energy that is clean energy. By the same token around our coasts, we are yet to commence the new maritime area regulatory authority, MARA. I understand that will not be done by the end of the year yet we are entering into agreements with people looking at wind farm surveys, giving them licences to survey off our coast. I have raised the rate of community contribution proposed under the wind farm projects the Minister of State’s Department will licence. It seems as though one of the largest wind farms being proposed off the south coast will have a community dividend of between €15 million and €18 million for a licence period that will run to 25 years. I do not see how that stacks up in any way, in giving support to local communities or in trying to encourage them to look at wind-developed pylons on their ocean frontage. In Scotland, there was a very robust community dividend policy, a sort of community contribution, where people could invest. We need to do that. I wish the Minister of State would publish what is in the proposed contracts he is talking about awarding in the future and let people see the full analysis of what will be on offer for the wind-generated sector of Ireland’s economy. We keep saying this is the game changer for Ireland and we are going to have so much wind. I hate to say it but every other European country with access to oceans is looking at offshore wind in a big way. It raises the question: if we are coming late to the party, who is going to be buying the excess energy we are going to be producing? What income will be available to Ireland from it? What offset will it offer our climate reduction targets?

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