Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On 27 February, we witnessed a historic vote in the European Parliament. MEPs in Strasbourg voted to approve the first-ever EU-wide nature restoration law to tackle the existential climate and biodiversity crisis. The Socialists and Democrats group, in which we in Labour are deeply proud to now be represented following the election last night of my dear friend Deputy Ó Ríordáin, was instrumental in seeing through the passage of this important directive.

It was the first major new EU biodiversity law since the 1992 habitats directive and it deserves all of our support. Unfortunately, opposition to the nature restoration law has been expressed by those who are outright climate change deniers but also by those who we might describe as climate change tolerators, namely those who engage in insidious undermining of the necessary measures that we need to tackle biodiversity loss and the climate crisis and those who express opposition on some vague basis to this nature restoration law. I listened in disbelief just now to the speeches of the Sinn Féin Deputies who say they are for nature restoration but against the nature restoration law for some vague and ill-defined reasons. I listened in disbelief when I heard them say that we do not need the EU to protect biodiversity. Of course we do. We need solidarity on a trans-European and transnational basis in order to address what is an international and transnational crisis. I wondered to myself what newly elected MEP Senator Lynn Boylan might make of the speeches we have been listening to from Sinn Féin in the Dáil today. They were extraordinary.

I am very glad that Deputy Ó Ríordáin’s election to the European Parliament last night staved off the threat of another climate change tolerator in the European Parliament. I am very sorry that it was at the expense of a Green Party MEP. I pay tribute to former MEP Ciarán Cuffe, for whom I have the utmost respect and who has played an enormously important role in the European Parliament on climate issues. I hope we will see Grace O’Sullivan hold her seat.

We have seen some very damaging action from what would historically have been seen as the centre-right ground at European level recently. European People's Party, EPP, MEPs submitted amendments amounting to a boycott of the legislation and were joined by European conservatives and reformists, as well as the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the Parliament. I commend the Fine Gael MEPs who faced down pressure from within their own grouping, which is to their credit. However, it is concerning, now that the final votes in the European election are being counted, that the EPP is courting parties which are climate-denying parties and that the EPP as a grouping is standing in the way of the sort of progress on climate and biodiversity that we need to see. The leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber, who the EPP initially sought to make chief Commissioner, embarked on what can only be described as a personal crusade to kill the nature restoration law. That is a real worry when we see the EPP gaining ground. I again express my relief that Dublin voters have recognised the importance of a counterbalance to the EPP in electing Deputy Ó Ríordáin, the first Socialists and Democrats MEP from Ireland in a decade.

We have seen fearmongering, disinformation and indifference, which have caused confusion around the nature restoration law. However, the aims behind it are simple. The aim is to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea area by 2030 and all its ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. This is crucial. We have seen more than 80% of Europe's assessed natural habitat in poor condition. In Ireland, draining, mining and the use of wetlands and peatlands for farming has meant that 85% to 90% of wetlands and peatlands are degraded and in poor condition. We are seeing human-driven change driving ecological collapse. We are living through an extinction event. It is deeply distressing to hear that the birds we are used to hearing sing are endangered. Future generations will be robbed of the joy of hearing the songs of corncrakes, hen harriers and curlews, which are going silent in many areas where they were once heard. There is algae covering Lough Neagh, poisoning local wildlife and endangering human health. Native tree species are struggling for space.

We have to change this. We were all heartened by the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and I hope we will see those implemented. They illustrate the power of politics to make pivotal and transformational changes to stem the ecological collapse that we are seeing.

At European level, we have seen real leadership from within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, as well as from within the Green group. I commend Mr. César Luena from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and from our sister party in Spain, who is the chief negotiator on the nature restoration law and who has shown immense commitment, along with so many others in the Green movement and the centre-left movement, to see this vital law passed. That type of political leadership at European and national level is what it takes. That is what it takes to secure the necessary changes to address climate loss and climate change and to secure a just transition, which is an integral component of our Labour Party climate action policy.

I thank our colleagues in the Regional Independent Group for introducing this motion because it gives us a valuable opportunity to discuss the issues facing us all, the farming sector included. While I acknowledge the Government will not oppose the motion, I also acknowledge the concerns around aspects of the text of the motion which have been expressed by some environmentalists, notably Friends of the Earth. There are some inaccuracies within the motion. For example, Article 1(2) of the nature restoration law states:

This Regulation establishes a framework within which Member States shall put in place effective and area-based restoration measures with the aim to jointly cover, as a Union target, throughout the areas and ecosystems within the scope of this Regulation, at least 20 % of land areas and at least 20 % of sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

This is a Union-wide target that covers all member states rather than a member state target. That is an important correction. Second, the target relates to area-based restoration measures. Existing agri-environmental schemes which have the objective of incentivising farmers to manage habitats sustainably qualify as an example of an area-based restoration measure. Third, there is an assumption within the motion that restoration implies habitats are not farmed. In reality, farming is essential to the management of many of these protected semi-natural habitats.

I have spoken before in this House about the success of some of these agri-environmental schemes like the Burrenbeo Trust project in the Burren in County Clare, with which I am very familiar. It has been so successful in incorporating farming methods with the protection of habitats and biodiversity. This is part of our just transition. It is only with the input of those who are being asked to make changes, and by bringing them with us, that Government can adequately identify, address or avoid issues of climate change. That is what we mean by a just transition. It applies within the agriculture community and within farming families as much as it applies to all of us in urban and rural settings.

The very nature of farming requires skill and flexibility. My experience of meeting with farmers from across the country shows and provides evidence that they are willing and eager to make a difference. They must be treated with respect, however. Farming communities must be brought with us, just as every community must be brought with us to tackle what is, as I said, an existential threat. It is that spirit of just transition which drives the measures that are advocated in this nature restoration law. We must embrace that spirit here at national level, as we have seen the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group and the Green group do at European level, when it comes to tackling this existential threat of biodiversity and climate loss.

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