Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is most welcome.

I addressed this matter during the Second Stage debate. What Ireland and the rest of the developed world needs to recognise is the contradiction in our energy policies. On the one hand, we are signing up to international agreements to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while, on the other, signing oil, gas and coal exploration licences. In the Paris Agreement we have agreed that we must limit increases in the global temperature to between 1.5° and 2° Celsius. Anything more than this would cause huge disruption to our way of life that would be beyond the capacity of politics, society and technology to deal with. However, we also know that, were they to be burned, the current known reserves of fossil fuels would release such an amount of greenhouse gases that it would lead to further rises in temperature. If we were to burn more, we would see further rises in temperature, exceeding the limit of between 1.5° and 2° Celsius. Therefore, our current energy policy is nothing less than a complete contradiction, a policy that can only lead to one conclusion: we should keep the petroleum in the ground. Of the known remaining reserves of oil and gas, we can burn between one third and two fifths and still keep within the 2° Celsius range. I ask the House to think about this and what it means. It means that three fifths of the known reserves of oil, gas and coal which were located using expensive and damaging exploration techniques will just have to stay where they are: locked up and unused forever. Any other outcome would mean disaster, not just for human society but for all life on earth. We need to get real. Anyone who votes against my amendment will need to explain to me how exactly he or she plans to square the circle. Will he or she suggest exploring and then leaving the fuel in the ground or will he or she ignore the global problem and our European, global and ethical obligations to get the fuel to be burned and damn the consequences?

The amendment has been taken from US Senator Bernie Sanders' just transition strategy which has been designed to ensure state action on climate change and energy policy is equal to the scale of the problem that faces us globally. The just transition strategy is also focused on providing a pathway to a new future of work that will move people from destructive industries and help them to retrain and adapt to a new, greener future in sectors such as renewables and green technologies. This is the approach the Green Party is emulating in Ireland and the amendment is an important demonstration of that thinking. We have an example of such joined-up thinking in the global divestment movement that has seen the divestment of over $5 trillion dollars worth of stocks and shares in fossil fuel related companies because of academics and public and private bodies in reaction not only to the moral obligations surrounding climate change but also the fact that these companies are about to be left with a mountain of stranded assets of explored and unextractable oil, gas and coal that will be the ruin of many of them unless they get out. I urge them to get out now.

Many will say this is impractical and that we cannot endanger our energy security and that we not be able to keep the lights on without new oil and gas exploration at home. However, just this week, the new French Government led by Emmanuel Macron has announced that it will do exactly what is proposed in the amendment. The new Environment Minister, the noted ecologist Nicolas Hulot, declared a new law to prohibit the issuing of all new licences for oil and gas exploration, onshore and offshore, on the principle that fossil fuels located could never be extracted and that to do so would greatly endanger the lives and safety of future generations. Before Members have a go at me about this being possible in France because of its use of nuclear power, the same government has announced the phase-out of 20 ageing and expensive atomic power plants. The exploration ban, the nuclear power plant phase-out and the proposed ending of all fracking in France are part of a new green shift that will see France emulate Germany, Denmark, Sweden and other countries in a rapid transition to a renewables future. I say: "Ireland, let us get on board."

I stress again my complete support for the Bill. My amendment is offered not in an effort to disrupt or slow down the process but to open the debate on energy policy in Ireland that will bring it to a level that really reflects the seriousness of our commitments.I am delighted that once the President signs the Bill, which will be passed here today, fracking in Ireland will be banned, and we will have secured crucial protections for our air, water, farms, rivers, climate and, most of all, our people.

We have protected our community from the dangers and fears inherent in this technology, and vindicated the work of many groups here today in the Gallery, including Friends of the Earth, Afri and Love Leitrim. They have done tremendous work to get the Bill so far. Nonetheless, I will push for a full vote on the amendment, as my colleagues in the Green Party in the Dáil did when they suggested similar additions to the Bill. We need to face up to our responsibilities and the natural constraints of our planet. Today, we will ban onshore fracking and it is fantastic, brilliant and a real progressive step forward for Ireland. My amendment would ban not only onshore, but offshore fracking. It is the same thing. It is all about damaging and polluting our atmosphere and damaging the quality of life of our people. This is why I have tabled the amendment.