Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

We had a tornado in Leitrim at the weekend. Extreme weather events will become a more and more common occurrence as we head towards climate catastrophe. Meanwhile in Dubai, negotiations are continuing around an entirely inadequate draft text for COP 28.

The Taoiseach's speech at the opening of COP 28 was widely condemned by environmental activists as a copout. He chose to call only for an extremely vague planned reduction of fossil fuels rather than phasing out fossil fuels completely. Now, any mention of the phasing out of fossil fuels has been deleted from the draft text by the chair of the conference, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the head of the UAE's national oil company, ADNOC.

If, after 28 conferences, there is still not agreement on the basic point of the need to phase out fossil fuels, does the Taoiseach agree it is time to shift venues, change the script and support an alternative process? Will he come out in clear support of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty? Will he ensure Ireland becomes the first western state to support that and push the EU to get behind a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty?

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