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

I welcome the opportunity to address the statements on the Energy Charter Treaty. I acknowledge my colleague Senator Boylan who has done a significant amount of work on the Energy Charter Treaty, including a master's thesis, which very much informs our party policy and these statements.

For a long time we have been advocates of withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty. It is a relic of a fossil fuel past. Negotiated in the early 1990s after the Cold War, this international agreement represents a bad deal for Ireland and a worse deal for the environment. It offers so-called investment protection to fossil fuel companies meaning they can employ it to slow down the transition to net zero. Not only does this expose ordinary workers and families to a potential hefty financial burden but, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it can also erect significant barriers to decarbonisation.

Climate action cannot afford to wait. According to new research released last week, the carbon budget for stopping the earth heating 1.5° could run out in just six short years. In 2018 the IPCC estimated there was only a 50% chance of staying within 1.5° if global emissions were halved by 2030 and reduced to net zero by 2050. As grim as this was, we are now in an even worse position. The earth is speeding towards the catastrophic warming of our planet rather than slowing down. The Government certainly seems determined not to buck this trend.

Under the stewardship of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party Ireland exhausted almost 50% of the 2021 to 2025 carbon budget in the first two years. We are on track to exhaust 123% of the allocated carbon budget by 2030. By refusing to depart from a business-as-usual approach whereby the markets will sort it out, the Government will almost certainly max out the 2025 carbon budget before it has left office if it does change tack and make progress. By remaining in the ECT we risk billions of euro in potential legal action by fossil fuel companies.

For the health of our environment and our economy Ireland must withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty. Ireland would not be an outlier if we adopted this approach. The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Poland and Luxembourg have all recognised that the Energy Charter Treaty is not fit for purpose. While other states took definitive action to reinforce their commitment to decarbonisation and protect ordinary workers and families from the damage that the diversion of State funds to fossil fuel companies could inflict on them by withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty, this State, under the guidance of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has continued kicking the can down the road and deferring to others to make a decision for it. The direction of travel has been clear for some time yet the Government has continued to bury its head in the sand.

In November 2022 the European Parliament voted with a majority of 100 votes to leave the Energy Charter Treaty. A letter was issued from 280 EU parliamentarians which made clear the ECT is a serious threat to Europe's climate neutrality target and, more broadly, the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In February 2023 a leaked communication from the European Commission signalled that a collective EU withdrawal from the ECT appeared unavoidable.

Despite this, the Irish Government has refrained from taking a clear position with clear timelines. Although we welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy Ryan, has confirmed that Ireland will pull out of this dangerous trade deal via a co-ordinated withdrawal, it is essential to point out that the Government only did so when moves were made at European level. The delay and dodging of definitive action is a hallmark of the Government. Let us not forget the windfall tax. Whereas other EU states were quick to implement the measure, this Government's persistent delays resulted in potentially billions in lost revenue. History is about to repeat itself.

As other EU states prepare to deliver a strong message about their commitment to climate action via a withdrawal from the ECT, the Irish Government and the Irish Minister continue to dither. I call on them to provide urgently clear detail and a timeline for Ireland's exit. Make it clear this is not yet another empty commitment. This would serve to further strengthen the EU's ability to carry out a co-ordinated withdrawal, for which a majority is needed and, thus, Ireland's clear intention is essential.

This is not an issue on which we can wait. We are already starting to see the impact of complacency. In fact, there is already one legal challenge against the Irish State with many more at risk of following.

The investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, mechanism is a provision of the ECT. The ISDS allows investors to seek compensation for damages resulting from government actions that negatively impact their investment. It is a closed-door investment tribunal with no appeal mechanism. There have been 158 investment arbitration cases under the ECT, but these have exploded in number over the past ten years. EU states are the target of 90% of these claims. Significantly, the payments awarded to fossil-fuel claimants tend to be disproportionately high, something we would think the State would want to avoid.

The ISDS is the provision that puts billions of euro on the line and threatens to usher in a new era of regulatory chill when it comes to climate action. We do not have to look very far to justify the position of Sinn Féin and many in the Opposition. For example, the Dutch had a short-term energy problem as their country was over-reliant on gas and prices went through the roof. In 2009, coal-power plants were invited into the Netherlands, and these opened in 2015 and 2016. To reach the country's climate targets, the Netherlands recognised that it was necessary to phase out these plants by 2030. In 2021, the Netherlands was hit with two claims under the ECT to the tune of €2.4 billion. When Italy denied a new licence to allow for exploration for offshore oil, in line with legislation to facilitate the energy transition, it was issued with a bill of €190 million. Here in Ireland, Lansdowne Oil and Gas plc, a partner of Barryroe Offshore Energy, is challenging the Government on its decision not to grant a licence that would have been inconsistent with our climate targets.

As if all that was not bad enough, a joint investigation by The Guardian, the Transnational Institute and the Berlin-based PowerShift, made public in mid-November 2022, revealed the ECT processes are mired in dodgy dealings, with opaque proceedings, inadequate controls on conflicts of interest for key personnel, including arbitrators, and that this was exacerbated by what the investigators cited as a potential bias in favour of fossil fuel interests. Is this really the type of proceeding the Irish people should be a party to? Surely not.

It is also clear that modernisation attempts have failed. The urgent need to kick-start the withdrawal process is exacerbated by several factors. Not the least of these is the controversial sunset clause that allows lawsuits to be filed 20 years after the departure of a member. For example, Italy left the ECT in 2015 but was successfully sued in 2022. The longer the Government drags out this process, the more generations of Irish workers and families it will expose to this treaty. Continued membership of the ECT also poses potential risks to Ireland's future energy security. When war broke out in Ukraine last year, it exposed just how vulnerable this State is to the volatility in the international energy markets and reinforced the need to radically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and become energy independent.

Ireland imports a little over 70% of the energy we use. This far outstrips the EU average of 58%. Despite seemingly having ample resources of wind, Ireland is still heavily dependent on oil. The latest statistics have revealed that oil accounts for 45% of primary energy needs, while gas accounts for a further 34%. All the oil used in Ireland is imported, as is three quarters of our gas. This makes clear just how dependent Ireland is on the whims of other states and on private energy firms to keep our lights on and our economy moving. Despite having an almost unlimited amount of renewable energy off our coast, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-led Governments have completely failed to harness this opportunity. For decades, their policies on renewables were defined by inaction and paralysis, favouring instead the further entrenchment of fossil fuels. This was and is not good enough.

Renewables have the potential to become the dominant players in Ireland's energy mix. To be fair to the Government, it has certainly at least started to ramp up efforts in this regard. It is certainly adept at setting lofty targets dressed up in fluffy rhetoric. In reality, though, delivering those targets is something the Government falls far short of.

As an example, let us take the latest renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auction. The third auction for onshore wind and solar power delivered the smallest volume at its highest-ever price. Some 33% fewer renewables will be harnessed for a cost 25% higher than RESS 1. This is not just a lack of progress. Under this Government's watch, Ireland is actually going backwards. The RESS auctions are supposed to represent a key Government policy to deliver the climate action plan. The latest results make it abundantly clear that this is not a credible strategy. According to Wind Energy Ireland, we are less likely to reach our 2030 targets than we were this time last year. When we should be ramping up activity in this area, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have decided it is time to slow down. This is simply not good enough.

It is not just failed auctions we are contending with. No wind project has been awarded planning permission for more than a year now. The average waiting time for a decision to be made is a staggering 92 weeks. It is supposed to be 18 weeks. Moreover, many RESS contracts are timing out because a grid connection cannot be secured in time. Many community-owned projects are also failing due to a lack of support from the Government. Of the seven community renewable projects successful in RESS 2, only four are still involved in the process. There is also a significant question mark over several of these projects. These are projects desperately needed, that must be delivered and must be delivered on time. There are fundamental questions here in terms of the grid and planning, but also regarding the ownership model and the returns for communities and the State. These are fundamental questions around our energy system here. Another fundamental element of this context is the role of fossil fuels and the powers the ECT gives to fossil fuels companies. It is a relic of a fossil fuel past and Ireland should show leadership and leave it.

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