Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A new international team of researchers has just established that 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded and critically that land-based carbon absorption has collapsed completely, going way beyond the worst case scenarios of previous research.

Forests, lakes, soils and so on that are supposed to be absorbing carbon are not doing it anymore, such is the level of deforestation, the poor quality of a certain type of forestry, wildfires and so on. This research is terrifying because it means all the models are out the window and that the scenario is far worse and will accelerate.

When the land is not absorbing carbon, what is left is the ocean. Some 50% to 60% of oxygen is produced by the ocean and through carbon absorption by the ocean forests and plankton. If we have already destroyed, to a huge degree, the ability of the land to absorb carbon, we had better not do the same to the sea. The way development of our marine environment is being planned could do to the sea what we have done to the land. I ask the Government once again to not allow industrialisation, even in the name of climate change, of sensitive marine environments which could destroy the ability of sandbanks around the country, which are rich in plankton and absorb carbon. Do not destroy them with industrialisation until they have been properly assessed as to whether they should be protected environments.

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