Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Government and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, have praised President Biden's climate action but the reality of his climate policies is quite different. He has approved more oil and gas drilling permits during his term so far than the Trump Administration did. He has sanctioned the Willow project in Alaska, which will see 600 million barrels of oil flow and release more than 9 million metric tonnes of CO2. He has auctioned off 73 million acres of water in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and gas drilling and he has signed off on another liquified natural gas, LNG, project in Alaska. All of this comes at a time when he sings the praises of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, report, which tells us that we just cannot have new fossil fuel infrastructure on the planet if we want to limit global temperature rises.

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the astonishing welcome for Biden's climate policies that the Government has given. Are such double standards attractive to the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, given that they may have engaged in lofty rhetoric on climate while, at the same time, holding the door open to the location of an LNG terminal in Shannon or somewhere else? Can the Taoiseach please clarify the Government's policy on LNG?

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