Results 2,421-2,440 of 8,445 for speaker:Alice-Mary Higgins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (13 Sep 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I will ask a couple of specific questions, after which I will return to one of the wider ones. On the reporting mechanisms, Ministers previously had to report individually to the Oireachtas on how they were achieving their targets. This seems to have been amalgamated into a single session. Are there plans to return to a position where each Minister reported? This would allow for more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (13 Sep 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like to ask for two tiny clarifications.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (13 Sep 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I welcome the Minister's comments on embodied emissions. Which of the sectoral emissions in the breakdown we have do those come under?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (13 Sep 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Will the Minister confirm that emission savings planned for after 2030 will not be used in these two budget periods?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Sectoral Emissions Ceilings: Engagement with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (13 Sep 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: To be clear, the legislation does not allow for future counting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister identified the wider factor. The energy crisis is taking place inside a climate crisis, which has not gone away and which is intensifying. He mentioned dependence on fossil fuels, which, of course, includes gas, with the single exception of green hydrogen, which is a minority option. Gas is a fossil fuel and one that is extremely volatile in terms of pricing as well as being...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The Minister mentioned local authorities. Why, when they have taken the initiative, such as South Dublin County Council, for example, which has said concerning data centres that it wants a pause to get things in terms of its concerns, has the Government pressed against that rather than supporting it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Is there analysis of the kinds of data processing? When it comes to the crunch, are we talking what gets prioritised? Is it Amazon Web Services, for example? I do not mean any one company. Is it around a commercial profiteering? Where is the analysis on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Just because of my time constraint, I would like the Minister to address the position that Ireland will take at the meeting on 9 September.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: And the Energy Charter Treaty?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Will the Minister ask for a risk analysis to be done on the Energy Charter Treaty and exiting from it? I ask because Ireland has not conducted one in terms of our own context.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I note we still do not have a risk analysis for Ireland, and that is an issue. We should not have a situation where an area that has been identified very strongly as a risk is without a risk analysis, even though such an analysis has been requested repeatedly over recent years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We have had this conversation a number of times during previous appearances by the CRU at this committee. I am not looking for a response on a surge or on a particular day when we need emergency back up. I am looking for a response on the general issue of demand reduction, not demand flexibility.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Again, those measures addressed issues of surge or security of supply during a particularly difficult time but there were no measures relating to general demand reduction. Having back-up generators, for example, was one of the measures.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I ask Mr. Gannon to confirm that gas is not considered within that frame of renewables, when we are discussing it-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Apologies but it was just a little bit of a blurring of the lines.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: We have seen it on sustainability.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: I would like an answer from Mr. Foley.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: The question is on the issue of demand and the expansion of demand. Mr. Foley mentioned that he thought 9% was a reasonable level of expansion for a prosperous, growing, sophisticated western economy even though we have heard that this increase in demand is entailing the continuation, sustaining and bringing back online of fossil fuel generators. It also involves back-up generators,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Supply and Security: Discussion (30 Aug 2022)

Alice-Mary Higgins: Yes, but my specific question is whether it is acceptable that we would continue to seek to meet an increase in energy demand. Mr. Foley is saying he is okay with a 9% increase in energy demand even though the kinds of measures that are meeting that involve fossil fuels. I am placing that in the global context. Mr. Foley said that because we are a prosperous western economy, it is okay but...