Dáil debates

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Other Questions

Climate Change Negotiations

5:00 pm

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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41. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he received an invitation to the United Nations climate change conference in Marrakesh in the second week of November 2016. [36040/16]

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I understand the Minister attended the climate change conference in Marrakesh, COP 22. I ask him for a report of what happened there. I understand afterwards the Minister promised to set out a roadmap to transition to a low-carbon economy. I ask him to outline how that will happen.

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held its 21st Conference of the Parties, COP 21, in Paris from 30 November to 12 December 2015. Ireland was represented in Paris by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and other relevant Ministers and Ministers of State also attended. The major outcome of COP 21 was the agreement by over 180 countries to restrict the impact of emissions on global warming and to limit the temperature rise to 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an ambition of 1.5° Celsius. This will be done through a range of climate action plans known as nationally determined contributions which will tackle 95% of the world’s emissions.

The 22nd Conference of the Parties, COP 22, took place in Marrakesh from 7 to 18 November 2016 and marked the entry into force of the Paris Agreement. The conference, as with all conferences of the parties, included a high level segment with appropriate attendance by relevant Ministers. In this regard, I received an invitation from the Moroccan hosts and along with a delegation representing Ireland's key Departments and agencies involved in climate change, I attended the second week of COP 22 and reaffirmed Ireland's commitment to combat climate change during the high level segment.

COP 22 represented a further expression of the global ambition to tackle climate change, with the focus shifting to the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Consensus was reached on the establishment of a rules-based system which will turn the Paris Agreement into a fully operational agreement by 2018. Global agreement was also reached on a number of significant financial issues at COP 22, including increasing the predictability of climate finance and the publication of the roadmap to the 2020 global commitment to provide $100 billion of climate finance funding annually. Agreement was also reached on the major funding mechanisms of the Paris Agreement and on the significance of adaptation finance.

Ireland ratified the Paris Agreement on 4 November and will contribute to its goals through the nationally determined commitment submitted by the European Union and its member states, which targets an overall EU reduction of at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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This is the No. 1 crisis of humanity. It threatens our planet and all of our people. Some 150,000 people die every year linked to climate change. What will be different this time? Last year the Taoiseach went to Paris and told the world Ireland was committed to addressing climate change. He said, "I hope that we are serious about putting in place a legally binding agreement on climate change that will underpin our actions". Hours later he was quoted as saying that the targets were unrealistic, saying that Ireland had a bad recession and could not meet those targets without harming agriculture and that Ireland would look for wriggle-room on target before sending people to negotiate with the EU to lower the targets.

Given that scientists now say we will definitively pass the 1.5° Celsius mark and are heading towards 2° Celsius, which literally has fatal consequences for large numbers of people, will Ireland be more ambitious than previously indicated by the Taoiseach?

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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We will present our transition statement to the House on Thursday and to the Seanad tomorrow. I hope to publish the draft mitigation plan within the next couple of weeks, following Cabinet approval. That will set out a draft of the actions to be taken by the Department. I look forward to Deputy Paul Murphy's input to that.

He is right: this is the single biggest challenge we all have. The big focus will need to be on not only 2050 and the need to reduce carbon with effectively a zero-carbon economy by then, but we also have bigger challenges in the short term regarding things such as black carbon, HFCs, hydrofluorocarbons and methane. There are a number of aspects to that. Not just in the area of agriculture and black carbon, but diesel engines are a particular problem for us. These are complex issues that the mitigation plan will address.

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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For many of us it is horrifying that the world's most important political post is about to be held by a climate-change denier, Donald Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the Paris Agreement, pull out of the UN Framework on Climate Change, and has promised to increase fossil fuel production and as part of that drive, fracking.

Did the Minister have discussions with any US representatives at the conference or since? Fine words are all very good, but Irish agriculture is due to increase its emissions by 6% to 7% by 2020 and transport emissions are set to climb by between 10% and 16% over that period. So the key elements in avoiding further emissions coming from Ireland particularly at a time when a global consensus at least that climate change exists and is manmade, are breaking down despite all the scientific evidence.

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The issue of the incoming US President, Donald Trump, was on everybody's lips in Marrakesh. I discussed it with American representatives - I discussed it with the head of the US EPA, who is effectively the Minister and the high representative from the United States. The Secretary of State, John Kerry, was also there, but I did not get the opportunity to speak to him. I spoke to representatives of the European Commission about it. I know the European Commission is actively engaged on the issue and is providing the type of leadership necessary particularly now that it is not coming from the US.

It is a little disingenuous - I do not mean of Deputy Paul Murphy - to say all of the debate has been focused on agriculture; it should also be focused on transport and my Department must take some of the responsibility also. In fairness, the agricultural and farming community saw the devastation caused by flooding this time last year. It appreciates that things need to change and is making progress in that regard, but progress will be slow. The one word of caution I would sound is that many countries in the developing world are looking very closely at what is happening in agriculture in Ireland and New Zealand, in particular, because they have a waiver in agriculture until post-2030. If we get it wrong in agriculture, they will not sign up to the 2040 targets. It is imperative that we bring as many people and countries as possible with us. We must provide leadership; show that we can be responsible in agriculture and that we can reduce emissions, as well as improve production. There is an opportunity to provide leadership for the world. Ireland's representatives had a multilateral meeting with representatives of Uruguay, Argentina and New Zealand to see how we could share our technology and research to provide the type of leadership needed in this area.