Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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95. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the concerns and suggestions brought forward by stakeholders and experts at the pre-legislative scrutiny meetings on the climate action and low carbon development (amendment) Bill at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action; his plans to amend the Bill to take account of these concerns and suggestions to strengthen the Bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35129/20]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister about the climate action and low carbon development (amendment) Bill. As the Minister will be aware, the Bill is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny at the Joint Committee on Climate Action. The committee is just coming to its conclusion. I thank all the various stakeholders. I want to know if the Minister has heard from the stakeholders on the positive suggestions that they have brought forward and if he will be accepting and making amendments to the Bill.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The draft text of the climate action and low carbon development (amendment) Bill was published on 7 October and referred for pre-legislative scrutiny at that time. Those proceedings provide a welcome opportunity for detailed examination and debate on the text of the Bill by members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action and by witnesses. The committee commenced pre-legislative scrutiny on 14 October and I understand it is ongoing.

I have followed proceedings and note that a number of witnesses have attended to date from a range of backgrounds and provided valuable evidence. I understand these proceedings are to conclude shortly. This is an important element of the legislative process and I look forward to considering any report prepared by the committee as soon as it is available. In this regard I expect to be in a position, subject to further consideration and having sight of the committee's report, to take on certain recommendations from the committee ahead of commencing the legislative process in the Oireachtas. While the Bill remains priority legislation for the Government, I will await the outcome of this pre-legislative scrutiny before finalising its content.

I appreciate and think useful the work that is being done in the committee. I believe it will bring real results in improving the legislation before we go into the full legislative process.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the fact that the Minister is open to accepting amendments. There is some degree of consensus emerging, certainly that there is an amount of work to be done to improve the legislation. Will the Minister outline the expected timeline, working on the basis that the committee's report will be ready in the next week or two, for the further progress on the legislation?

I ask the Minister to speak to a point in relation to public involvement and public engagement and the opportunity that exists with the passing of this framework legislation to include the public voice in decision-making around our climate action obligations. It is an issue that came up consistently in the deliberations of the committee and I merely want to hear from the Minister in terms of his openness to improving the Bill in relation to public engagement.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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On the timing issue, when we first published the legislation I expressed the possibility that the pre-legislative scrutiny would be quite short and much shorter than usual. That is because there is a certain urgency in my mind in getting the Bill passed so that we can start implementing its measures next year. In that way we can include 2021 in the first five-year plan, and there is real urgency for us to raise our ambition on climate action. It has taken longer than I had originally expected but that is not unusual. It is appropriate if the committee has been doing good work in assessing it, which I think it has. I would still be hopeful - I cannot force the hand of the committee on this - for us to have the report in the third week of November, as was the window I was hoping for which is not that far from now. The benefit would be I could implement a number of amendments reflecting on what the committee has done and that would give us time to get back into the Dáil in a fairly timely manner. I will come back on the issue of public consultation later on.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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There is a range of issues that have been raised, as the Minister might appreciate, from the range of stakeholders whom I again thank. I refer to the strength of the language, for example, on the targets and the need for, if not interim targets, certainly checks and opportunities to correct the path if we are going astray. That is a significant ask and I would ask the Minister to address that.

On the question mark over the 2050 target, given the changes at a European level and the climate target plan there, where we are proposing to reduce emissions by 51% between now and 2030 and they are saying at least 55%, does the Minister think there is a fundamental issue there and a need to recalibrate at this stage? Is that something he is looking at?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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On that last point, we should be careful that we are comparing like with like because one of the unfortunate difficulties is we are starting on effectively a zero level not having achieved any of the reductions that we had expected by 2020 and for us to get to 51% is the full 51 yards. In the European Union, most of the countries are significantly ahead of us in the emissions reductions that they have already achieved and it is the equivalent of starting a 50 m race where they have a 20 m, and sometimes a 25 m, head start on us. Our level of ambition will be way beyond any of our European comparator countries because we have so much catching up to do. We can do it. It will be good for our country.

The more public consultation we do to get a widespread understanding of that and public buy-in to the solutions in a bottom-up way the better, but no one should underestimate the scale of the change. No one has ever done a 7% per annum reduction in climate emissions.

I was following the committee proceedings with the likes of Professor Kevin Anderson, and others whose work I know well, who is absolutely right. If one is adhering to the Paris climate timetables to meet a 1.5°C temperature increase limit, much more aggressive and ambitious timelines would be needed. I will be honest. First of all we have to show that we can achieve the existing level of ambition. If we can do that, I would have no problem accelerating but no one should underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead of us.