Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I read a summary of that report, which is very serious in terms of the short-term impacts arising from climate change and a projection over the next five years in terms of rising sea levels but also rising temperatures and, in some instances, excessive rainfall in northern Europe. The reality is that climate change is here.

Some of the big events arising out of climate change will not happen post 2050 as was the original scientific consensus a decade ago; the idea that if we do not act, terrible events will happen post 2050. The terrible events have happened all over the world in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Europe last year and will continue to happen over the next number of years.

I have no argument with the Deputy in respect of us doing everything we possibly can to ramp up efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This Government is doing so through the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the Climate Change Advisory Council that has been established and the carbon budgets that have been proposed by the Government. I would argue that this is the first real, significant, comprehensive, integrated approach across different departments that has occurred for quite a considerable time building, to be fair, on the 2019 climate plan.

The Deputy is not scaremongering. We do need to continue the debate, however. That is why I welcome Deputy Bacik raising this issue. Every time the Government makes a number of moves, some sector or group will always say there is a reason why it should not happen in their sector. That happened with the carbon tax initially. I am glad we withstood all the pressure to suspend the carbon tax during the height of the energy crisis. Pressure came on us from parties not to go ahead with it but we held the line. Why? To provide money for retrofitting and funding for fuel poverty and environmentally friendly farming, as well as being a disincentive for the excessive use of fossil fuels. Adaptation is something we need to ramp up, working with local authorities across the country because of the reality of climate change in the here and now. The Deputy referenced sea levels. If I am honest, there has to be a much stronger focus on the adaptation side of the equation as well as the prevention side.

We have made progress in terms of Irish power generation and industrial companies covered by the EU emissions trading scheme, for example, which went down by 4% overall. Emissions decreased by 2% from the electricity generation sector in 2022. Industrial emissions decreased by more than 7%, with cement industry emissions decreasing by almost 9% in 2022. Aviation, on the other hand, increased dramatically by approximately 94%, which was probable a bounce back from Covid-19, compared with 2021. Ireland's economic growth has been an outlier in Europe. The economy is growing much stronger than other European countries and our population is also increasing.

Those are challenging factors in respect of our response to climate change.

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