Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to contribute to this debate. As we move closer to the light at the end of the tunnel that has been the horrible 16 months of the Covid pandemic, we are all reminded of this next global crisis, the one we were facing long before we ever knew what the word "Covid" meant, counted daily numbers or restricted our movements. It is one that we will face long after Covid has hopefully gone. The pandemic showed us how quickly the world can respond to an emergency when it is staring us right in the face. Within months, we had vaccine trials up and running and we will have the full roll-out within a year. The same urgency needs to be focused on the world's greatest ever challenge, climate change.

Society, including legislators here and around the world, have either somewhat ignored or underappreciated the impact of climate emergency for far too long. It requires significant and immediate action to cut our carbon emissions, and change how we live and work on the planet. I am very proud to have been part of the Cabinet that introduced the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 under initially the then Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, and subsequently the then Minister, Deputy Bruton. I am very proud to be part of this Oireachtas as it seeks to expand and increase the impact of our actions.

The Bill before us today greatly strengthens our response to the climate emergency. It commits us to being climate neutral by 2050. It provides a legal requirement for carbon budgets. It increases accountability of the current Government and Ministers and all future governments and Ministers. It obliges public bodies take account of and responsibility for their own climate action plans. The urgency to address climate change, but in an equitable, sustainable and fair way, informed by science, is at the heart of the Bill. In addition to being sustainable it must also be socially, economically and environmentally fair.

While Ireland has no big industry, as other EU countries have, possibly the largest sector that can both have an impact and be impacted by the Bill is our farming community. As I see it, the most important stakeholders in the Bill are our farmers who, with the will and the right supports, will play a crucial role in the country reaching its targets by 2050. I have concerns that, as a major stakeholder, the farming community has not been brought along with us as a partner to the Bill which is needed. We all know that farmers know the land and the climate better than anybody else in this country. They see the changes at first hand and know how important taking action will be. This is not something that will happen in the future; it is something that is already happening and has involved our farming community for years. Due to the nature of the changes farmers make and the difficulty of measuring the impacts, I believe farmers have not received the recognition for their efforts that they should have.

One of the biggest weapons to ensure climate neutrality by 2050 will be carbon sequestration or removals. That will only happen with the support of the farming community. Regarding the climate budgets mentioned in the Bill, carbon removals are only ever implied which is not enough. The importance of removal warrants its explicit inclusion in the Bill.As a country so proud of supporting and buying local produce, I believe further work is needed in the area of carbon leakage. There should be strong measures in place, possibly including our own legislation, to ensure the changes we make do not have unintended consequences for farmers elsewhere in the world with less restrictions, farming in a more environmentally damaging way and shipping their product halfway across the world to Dublin Port. Not only would this completely undo our efforts to combat the climate emergency, we would have destroyed our own farming industry in the process. I do not think that makes sense to anybody.

The only way to tackle the climate emergency is by taking meaningful action. With this Bill, the Government commits itself and the next 30 years of Governments to taking the necessary action to restore and preserve the planet for our children's children. Government, industry, business and society must work together in a fair and equitable way to achieve the goals set out. These are the targets we must achieve and I believe this Bill is an important step towards doing that.