Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McAuliffe was collecting "isms" there. We should not neglect to include late-stage neoliberal capitalism in that list, which is probably the root cause of that kind of social isolation, more so than some of the even less attractive forms he listed. Before I get going, I welcome the Taoiseach's mention of the sustainable development goals and the fact they were discussed at the Council. This is a big year for Ireland with respect to the goals. We have that voluntary national report to make in July, so I am glad to hear it remains at the forefront of the Taoiseach's mind.

I mention also something that occurred today in the European Parliament, namely that its members voted to accept the emissions trading scheme. It is a large and delicate piece of work which involves the carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM as it is termed. Much delicate work was done by my Green Party colleagues in the Parliament, Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O'Sullivan. It was the second bite of the cherry in terms of getting that over the line and it is extremely important legislation and work that will protect us against just offshoring the carbon effects of the production of, for example, steel, cement or fertiliser. The latter will have an effect in the Irish context. It should not be the case that we can simply move those carbon emissions outside the EU and forget about it. It is important people who produce those types of goods within the EU are able to compete on a level playing field and ETS and CBAM, if I am not losing everybody in the acronyms, in particular is an important piece of work.

I will stick with the acronyms and raise CCS, or carbon capture and storage. One of the matters discussed at this European Council meeting was carbon removal certification. I am sceptical of technophile solutions to the climate crisis we face. CCS will play a role, but the temptation is there to overhype the role it can play. When we are facing up to the climate crisis we must also recognise we are in a biodiversity crisis and we should be layering the solutions to one on top of the other. There is a huge opportunity to do that not with technological solutions, or technophile solutions that the technology is not yet there for, but with nature-based solutions. I say that both in reference to an informal meeting of the environment ministers on 18 April, where they discussed enabling conditions for the business community to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. That reminded me immediately of recommendation 17 of the recent Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which stated "The Irish business community needs to engage with biodiversity and show leadership in the same way that they have begun to engage with the issue of the climate crisis". The Taoiseach attended a Chambers Ireland event in Dublin Castle recently. At the event, Mary Robinson exhorted the members of Chambers Ireland to be ten times bolder. We absolutely need to be ten times bolder in how we face up to the climate crisis. In addition, and looking at things like the citizens' assembly, let us implement its recommendations. Let us be ten times bolder within this Parliament and let us ask businesses to be ten times bolder in stepping up to the plate and how we respond.

I mention briefly the upgrade of our grid, and ports infrastructure was mentioned at the Council. This is pivotal if we want to unlock the enormous potential for renewable energy we have off our coasts. That in turn will also be important for the carbon border adjustment mechanism. If Germany is to continue to produce steel and if we are to produce fertiliser, then we need to make use of the renewable energy we can onshore here through our ports and grid infrastructure. That will ultimately help us get the pieces of the jigsaw to fit together.

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