Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I very much support the Minister's initiative with regard to dialogue, building awareness, engagement and motivation among the peoples of Ireland with regard to climate change. As has been stated here today, it is the issue of our time. A number of people have mentioned that it is a great challenge. The Minister indicated we are a small nation but we can really take leadership in the area and punch above our weight. We must make the decisions for this to happen but I do not see it coming about at present. The Minister spoke about the numbers of targets but sometimes less is more. If we could get the results of some concrete targets, it would be better than having aspirations.

Very recently, the highest wave ever recorded off the coast of Ireland was measured off my home county of Waterford at Tramore. It was this year during Storm Ophelia and reached a height of 17.81 m or 58.4 ft, almost the height of a six-storey building. It was definitely far too high for anybody to surf on and had the potential to do much damage. If this is the sign of what is to come, we must step up to the mark. As we saw recently in Mountmellick in County Laois, rivers that have not flooded in living memory have broken their banks, with families left homeless, livestock wiped out and farmland ruined. At one point 25,000 people were without electricity. Whole streets and roads were drowned in water, thereby damaging the small local businesses so important to community life.

Met Éireann's head of research told the Citizens' Assembly these extreme rain events will increase by 30% by mid-century but our carbon emissions in Ireland are still increasing. These extreme weather events affect the poorest in Ireland. They also pale in comparison with the extreme weather events Ireland’s high carbon emissions wreak on other countries. For example, I refer to the disappearance of islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean atolls, refugees fleeing drought and war in Syria and wildfires across Australia. Climate change is intrinsically linked with the question of who caused the damage and who pays for it. All of us, and not just those of us in Ireland, have a responsibility but we must play our part.

Climate justice operates on the basis of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", which operates within countries as well as between them. According to Dr. Mary Robinson, it is “a human-centred approach to climate change, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its [resolution] equitably and fairly”. There is no mention of climate justice in the 2012 or 2017 national mitigation plans or the draft national adaptation framework. This is in conflict with section 3(2)(c) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, which places a legal obligation on the Minister to have regard to "climate justice" in developing a national mitigation plan and national adaptation framework.Significant submissions were made on this topic from Trócaire, Faith in Action, Christian Aid and others. I ask the Minister to outline the regard which his Department gave to these submissions when drafting the national mitigation plan and national adaptation framework.

In relation to climate justice, I welcome the national mitigation plan’s new focus on ensuring a just transition after the Green Party submitted a motion on the issue of Bord na Móna workers on the 27 May 2017. We look forward to the publication of a report on the spatial or geographical economic and employment implications of the transition and welcome the appointment of Adrian Kane from the ICTU energy and natural resources committee to the national diaIogue on climate action. However, as welcome as these initiatives are, there are no hard actions for a just transition specified in the national mitigation plan, or draft national adaptation framework. Indeed the draft national adaptation framework acknowledges submissions made on just transition but specifies no adaptation measures to put this into effect.

The Climate Advisory Committee acknowledges that a massive economic transformation is needed to tackle climate change. Aimless, revisable plans without any specifications of targets or hard action are unfair on workers in carbon heavy industries. It leaves them in limbo, stressed about an uncertain future. Over 450,000 jobs have been lost in the oil and gas industry worldwide since February 2014, 170,000 in the North Sea alone. In May, Bord na Mona announced that 70 staff would lose their jobs due to the closure of a briquette plant in Littleton, County Tipperary. On 27 May 2017, the Green Party motion on just transition called on the Department to “take a decisive lead to create employment in electricity generation, energy storage, community energy, transport infrastructure, energy efficiency and sustainable heating for homes and businesses, and rehabilitation of our bogs and national habitats”. In 2019, the €l20 million subsidy for peat will end. Will the Minister tell us what exact, specific plans he has to implement a just transition for Bord na Móna workers that for generations have worked hard to provide the Irish State with energy sovereignty?

These ordinary workers, such as those losing jobs in Littleton, are in no way to blame for inaction by Bord na Móna and Government in moving towards a cleaner energy system. Bord na Móna, a company already making €85 million in profits over the past three years, currently receives a subsidy of €120 million for burning peat. That €120 million could ensure the safety, security, pensions and retraining for every peat worker and reliant industry in the midlands. It could also rehabilitate our bogs and make them powerful resources for carbon mitigation, helping us to avoid imminent fines of €600 million a year from 2020.

In the USA, solar energy alone employs more people than oil, coal and gas combined and by 2050, a global economy based on renewabIes and energy efficiency would create 24 million more permanent, full-time jobs, according to research from Stanford University. The economist David Connolly has also outlined how climate action, if taken now, could create 100,000 new jobs in the energy sector alone. The new EU renewable energy directive gives us an opportunity to address the feeling communities have of being locked out of progress, having things happen to them rather than benefit themselves.

I will conclude on a matter that annoys me, which I have raised previously, namely offshore oil and gas. Will the Minister address his plans to ban offshore oil and gas drilling off the Irish coast, considering the damage it does to marine life, our fishing industry, and its contribution to climate change? Will the Minister assure me that no new licences will be given for oil and gas exploration off the Irish coast? It is one seriously good measure that could be taken to ensure that we do not continue to damage our climate and the clean air and health of the people of Ireland.