Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will not be able to accept these amendments. The reason I am focusing on Article 2 is because it sets this core objective, which is the key one, to halve the emissions in this decade, the net zero target. The core of it is trying to keep global temperatures below 1.5°. That is the appropriate focus. Within that, Article 2(2) recognises, as I referred to earlier, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Article 4 sets out the basic key mechanisms for achieving these sorts of reductions.

First, we are signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate. It is a strange document in that it does not write out the specific legal requirement for each state in how the emissions reductions are achieved, but it sets the overall international mechanism where nationally determined contributions have to increase, which is only way in which we will get 200-plus countries to agree and come to a coherent meeting of the objective. We are bound internationally to each of the provisions.

Going down the road of very technical provisions within the Paris Agreement on climate are not appropriate for this system change legislation. The key thing I keep coming back to is that everything in this Bill is consistent with the key provisions in this international agreement, and the key consistency is trying to hold the increase in global temperatures to well below 2° and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°. That is the core strength, and included within that, in both the Paris Agreement and the founding 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, agreement, is a recognition of common but differentiated responsibilities. I do not see that we need to accept these amendments and to go beyond that.