Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I can understand the desire to focus on the future, even though we are here to respond to the 2019 transition statement. We need to be serious and solemn about where we are now in order to be credible when we speak about the future. Climate change is continuing apace. The UN Environment Programme has been clear that even despite the pandemic, we are on track for a 3% increase in temperature this century. That is devastating. We declared it was a crisis and we know it is a crisis. The impact of climate change is no longer a future issue; it is a present issue. We see the evidence of its impact all the time and we know that it hits hardest those in developing countries and countries that have done the least to cause it, which is related to that principle of climate justice.

Ireland has not done its fair share. We talk a great deal about bringing people with us, but to bring anyone with us we need to be going somewhere. For the past decade, Ireland has not been going anywhere. Ireland has stayed still and let others, including poorer countries, carry the burden and the work of trying to address this existential crisis for our globe. Ireland is in 19th place in the European Union. We are not just in the bottom half but well into the bottom half, towards the bottom third of the league tables in the report released yesterday by the climate change performance index. We have been failing. We are not now in a matter of convincing people that climate change is an issue and that perhaps we should take action on it. Much of the public does not need to brought along with us; they are ahead of us, they know it is a crisis and they reflected that in the election. They know it is urgent. The ambition, when one speaks to individuals about what they want from climate change, often far outstrips the political ambition.

It certainly far outstripped the political ambition in the draft Bill, which, as the Minister acknowledged, is being subjected to pre-legislative scrutiny. We have had very positive engagements and important input from experts. It is important that those diverse experts' views be listened to and reflected on, and that we reflect them in our report, not just in our recommendations and actions. Those experts and critical perspectives are one of the greatest assets we have. It is really important, when we talk about bringing people with us, that we do not seek a false consensus or a lowest common denominator consensus in respect of climate change and climate action, but that we agree the key principles of moving forward. We must try to find legislation.I am hopeful that if the Minister takes on many of the recommendations, when we agree them and finalise them on the committee, this could be strong legislation. It is important that we reflect that in our legislation but also that we are always listening to those who are saying more needs to be done. We have seen that things have changed, and that the urgency is continuing to gather momentum. There are tipping points that are very hard to reverse. No matter what argument or beautiful rhetoric we might have, we cannot magic up again a glacier that has melted, as that is beyond our capacities. We need to be very clear on the direction of travel and the urgency of travel.

The Minister will be aware from following the debates in the climate committee, which are still under way, that 2050 is too far away as an ambition and that we need to have very clear and strong legal commitments by 2030. It is the next ten years that is the UN decade of action, and where we have the very blueprint, which Ireland helped negotiate, of the sustainable development goals to help guide us in terms of achieving this. These are the ways. If we talk about just transition as a sustainable development goal, it is how we move forward in a way that minds society, the economy and the environment together. They are a very useful blueprint and they sit alongside our Paris commitments.

The key year is 2030. We cannot afford to lose even one year, which is why I am concerned that some of the things being talked about are still long-fingered. We are talking about green procurement but it was recently being talked about for 2023, when it should be next year. Many of these things can be scaled up now. We have a two-year window in which the fiscal rules and requirements have been suspended in Europe. This means we do not need to choose between new builds and retrofitting, and we can do both. We have 0% finance available to us, so let us be extremely ambitious on that. On that issue, let us also look to the unnecessary demolition of building simply for the sake of profit and the building of a higher building, because there are huge omissions lost on that issue.

We will have a chance to engage Minister by Minister, I understand, around each of the issues in each of the areas. What we cannot afford is to have language, or loose language, replace action. There are difficult things we are going to need to do. Ireland needs to stop trying to get a derogation on the nitrates directive. We need to step up on that. We cannot simply ask others to make an exception for us when we are one of the wealthier countries in the world, and one of the countries that has pleaded exception the whole way through.

Senator Byrne referred to international objection. Let us be leaders on that. He spoke about the importance of Ireland taking a strong position at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCC, talks but we also have the opportunity to take a strong position at the European Union level. This week, the Minister will be meeting with the European Council and he will be determining what the European Council believes should be the collective target of ambition for Europe. In the European Parliament, the Minister's colleague and my former colleague, former Senator Grace O'Sullivan, now MEP, who has been awarded the status of rapporteur on some of this issue, has called for 60%, and that is what the European Parliament is recommending. I urge the Minister to support that at the European Council meeting. He will, of course, be aware that the climate committee has written to him in respect of that issue.

Let Ireland step up as a leader. Let us not give ourselves excuses. Let us replace language with action and let us put our commitments hard on the table in law.