Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Can I please make a small but an important point? There is nothing more real than our planetary boundaries. While any business sector may change, finances might change, and our entire fiscal and monetary structures may change, there is one thing that is not negotiable. When we talk about being real, the thing we need to be real about is our planetary boundaries and the impact of emissions. It is more real and less negotiable than anything else. Effectively, going into the future, our economic planning, our models, our expenditures, our systems and our business models will need to sit inside our planetary boundaries. The planetary boundaries cannot be adjusted to suit the realities or even the accustomed realities of economic practice. I do not say that to be insensitive or to say that those issues are not important. However, we do a disservice to anything and any area if we do not acknowledge the hard reality of planetary boundaries and of emissions levels. For example, in the area of jet kerosene, emissions trading schemes mean that many of the emissions from the aviation sector are not captured in our carbon budgets. However, we have a responsibility if we effectively subsidise that sector to a large degree and are part of a large part of aviation. Of course we need to have a sustainable aviation industry, to a degree. We need to look to that, but we also need to be realistic. We cannot rewrite the facts on emissions. As of yet, carbon capture is certainly not, and I do not think it is in line to be, in a position to pull that back. I appreciate the constructive engagement from colleagues across the House.