Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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7. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will be attending the COP27 conference in Egypt; if his attention has been drawn to the grave human rights abuses of environmentalists and climate campaigners by the Egyptian state; if he will meet with representatives of human rights organisations while there; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55315/22]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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On Friday, young people in Fridays for Future, student organisations and Extinction Rebellion will gather outside the House as part of global action on COP27. They will not be praising the Taoiseach or the Minister for action but will be commenting on inaction. They will be carrying clocks with them to symbolise the fact we are running out of time. They are also very aware that COP27 is taking place in a venue that is mired with human rights abuses. Is the Minister aware of the grave human rights abuses against climate and environmental activists in Egypt? Will he make any statement on the matter when he is there? What intentions does the Government have on this? Will it just turn a blind eye?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I will attend COP27 as head of the Irish delegation for the second week of the conference from 14 to 18 November. Ireland continues to advocate for COPs to be transparent and inclusive for all, promoting the active participation of women and young people in negotiations, and facilitating civil society attendance and engagement. This remains the case more than ever for COP27.

Human rights issues form part of Ireland's regular engagement with Egypt. Ireland has expressed concern regarding the protection of human rights in Egypt, including rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, and the constrained space for civil society. The protection of human rights defenders, which includes the fight against reprisals, is a key part of our multilateral work at the UN Human Rights Council and at the UN General Assembly.

Ireland's long-standing support for climate justice and adaptation recognises that women, girls, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised groups are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis and are more vulnerable to the shocks and stresses associated with current and future climate change. Reflecting this and our domestic commitment to climate literacy, public engagement and participation, Ireland will also be engaging in the development of a new action plan for the action for climate empowerment, ACE, stream, placing these issues alongside human rights and youth participation at the forefront of the process where they belong. I will also be setting aside time in my programme to meet civil society groups, including human rights activists, as I did in Glasgow last year.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I thank the Minister. I want to mention the highest-profile political prisoner in Egypt, Alaa Abd el-Fattah. He has been on hunger strike since April. He has been languishing in jail for ten years because he was an activist and an environmentalist. Since he took over the regime, el-Sisi has built a dozen prisons in ten years. There are 60,000 activists locked up. This week many people were arrested and will probably be tortured and thrown in prison for a long period of time because they are environmentalists and climate activists. It is worth quoting Alaa Abd el-Fattah's sister, who has said that those who attend COP27 do not realise their best allies those who are languishing in prison. They are the people in Egypt who really give a damn about the planet. All COPs are problematic and this venue is particularly problematic. Aside from the problems that go with the venue, I would like to argue that we are not just engaged in a greenwashing of companies with regard to COP, and many big companies play a big role, but we are greenwashing an entire state that is known for its repressive measures. I would like the Minister to comment further.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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One of the proudest moments I have had as a Member of the House was when I took part in a joint Oireachtas visit to Egypt six years ago to visit Ibrahim Halawa when he was in prison outside Cairo. I do not think anyone in the Chamber was on the delegation. It was one of the most important, interesting and engaging events I have taken part in. I am very familiar with what the Deputy has said in terms of freedom in Egypt for such prisoners and the need to think of them at this time. One measure we have progressed recently as a Government is directly funding a UN special rapporteur for environmentalists who face persecution or state oppression in whatever form.

I am going by memory, but I think it was Austria and ourselves who came together specifically to finance and support front-line defenders to be able to act on behalf of environmentalists who are imprisoned or under threat from whatever regime. That international office has just been established following the provision of funding from the Government. I had the pleasure of meeting its chief executive in Government Buildings in recent weeks. That is the best approach to take, between what we do in the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and through the international legal mechanisms open to us: to stand up for the rights of those who may be persecuted for what they believe in, for their identity or gender, or for anything else we see as being in contravention of the UN Charter of Human Rights.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The problem is, however, that the funding of human rights groups and countries that suffer the most, although it is important, will not deal with the problem of the rising CO₂levels in the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased from 358 parts per million in 1994 to 415 parts per million today. The Minister and I understand this is hugely problematic and that science is telling us we must leave 80% of known fossil fuels in the ground.

The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, tweeted tonight that he is so proud and that we have to take responsibility as leaders to drive the necessary transformation. He will come back from Egypt and step off the plane and start to argue, as many of the leaders in this House have done, that we need to increase our fossil fuel infrastructure in the current period. That will not do anything to help. It will hinder and utterly fail the groups of young people who will stand outside the Dáil on Friday. It is not their responsibility this is happening. It is the responsibility of the leaders who stand up at COP and say we can hold our heads up high but who cannot because CO₂emissions are increasing year on year since the first COP in Kyoto.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Deputy is right. That fear is real and it belongs to every one of every party, age and country. It is the primary challenge we face in this time. It has to guide us towards radical system change to reduce emissions. The test of that will come in the near future when our latest iteration of the climate action plan will put forward proposals in areas such as transport, energy, agriculture and industry, which have gone beyond compare in the scale of the changes that need to be made. Many of the changes will not be popular, as we heard earlier in discussions on some of the projects we have to do. It will be similar, I imagine, in my constituency, other Dublin coastal constituencies and along the east coast with the development of offshore wind. I have heard some of the Deputy's colleagues, such as Deputy Boyd Barrett and others, raise concerns which are absolutely valid. We have to listen to every aspect of this, but we must be careful not to find ourselves not being able to act. It is the same in transport. I have been around the country to every local authority, as best I can. It has been fascinating to listen to a lot of the intelligence in local government, but I also sense it will be difficult for us to do the scale of change we need to do to reduce our transport emissions. I could go through any sector with that. The test of this will be for all of us in the next five years, or next three years, I would argue, as to whether we can do the scale of system changes that are needed. That will be a test for everyone of every party.