Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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47. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department has estimated the potential impact on the environment of the promised withdrawal by President Trump from the Paris Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5800/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, held its 21st Conference of the Parties, COP 21, in Paris in 2015.  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. The Paris Agreement aims to increase the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change through resilience and adaptation and to foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development in a manner that does not threaten food production. It also aims to make finance flows consistent with the pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. The Paris Agreement will achieve its goals through a range of climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions, NDCs, to be carried out by all parties and which will ultimately tackle 95% of the world’s emissions. These NDCs are required to be ambitious and to increase in ambition over time in order to achieve the peaking of global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and to undertake rapid reductions thereafter.

The policy implications of the overall goals of the Paris Agreement will be evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in a special report to be published next year. This report will assist the UNFCCC in establishing a system for measuring the effectiveness of the NDCs submitted by the parties. A facilitative dialogue in 2018, informed by the IPCC report, will evaluate the overall contribution of the NDCs to the goals of the Paris Agreement. Beginning in 2023, a five-yearly global stocktake of the efforts made by the parties to combat climate change will measure their effectiveness and drive the ambition of future NDCs.

The reality is that the European Union has been leading the agenda on this, and many other countries have followed suit. We intend, within the EU, to continue to play a leadership role in this area.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The entry into force of the Paris Agreement required that 55% of parties, representing 55% of global emissions, complete their ratification processes. On 4 November 2016, those thresholds had been passed, triggering its entry into force. The agreement has now been ratified by 128 parties, including Ireland and the EU, with significant additional contributions to be made through the stated commitments by some of the larger parties, namely, China, India and the United States, all of whom have also ratified.

The Paris Agreement depends on the efforts of all parties to carry out ambitious climate action through their NDCs to achieve its objectives. The withdrawal of any party to the agreement would undoubtedly increase the already significant challenges facing the global community in taking appropriate action on climate change. However, I look forward to continued and positive collaboration, as required, with colleagues at EU level and beyond, as we work to advance the climate change agenda both nationally and globally.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Since taking power, Mr. Trump has given the go-ahead to the Keystone XL and Dakota pipelines, forbidden scientists from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, from speaking to the media and is insisting they must submit their work to the White House for review before it is published, and removed all reference to climate change from the White House website. His choice of Secretary of State is multimillionaire Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil. He has chosen for the EPA to be led by Scott Pruitt, who deems global warming a hoax. One third of Republican Members of Congress flat-out deny climate change is real. In total, these climate change deniers have received $73 billion in contributions from oil, gas and coal companies over the course of their careers. Does the Minister agree the environmental policies of this Administration and its El Presidente constitute a real and present danger to the future of our planet?

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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There are many countries across the world which do not come up to the mark on environmental matters. I have been criticised as Minister for the role I have taken on these issues. However, there is a determination within Europe, including in Ireland, to lead from the front on this, provide an example to countries across the globe and assist the least developed countries with both finance and technology to drive the agenda of reducing global emissions. At COP22, I had a meeting with counterparts from New Zealand, Argentina and Uruguay at which we discussed how our four countries can work together to develop agriculture in an efficient manner and share our knowledge with developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan African countries, in order that they too can utilise technology to reduce emissions globally.