Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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237. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the actions he plans to take on tackling climate change and reducing Ireland's level of emissions of carbon dioxide. [16172/16]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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238. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is aware of the recent confirmation from scientists in the southern hemisphere that global levels of carbon dioxide have passed 400 parts per million; if he is concerned that such levels pose a threat to the earth's biodiversity and to human civilisation, given that the last time levels reached this stage humans did not exist; the radical steps he proposes to cut emissions of carbon dioxide; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16175/16]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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239. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is concerned that the new structures introduced into the various Ministries and their respective responsibilities mean a downgrading of climate change as an issue, and to outline which Minister is responsible for answering questions relating to climate change. [17120/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 237 to 239, inclusive, together.

Climate change has been prioritised by the new Government as reflected in the establishment of a new role of Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

However, pending the formal legal transfer of the climate functions from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to the new Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, there is an interim period where responsibility for some statutory and other issues, remains with me as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Once all the necessary legal instruments are put in place to effect the transfer of the relevant functions, my colleague, Minister Naughten, will have full responsibility for climate matters. Notwithstanding this transition process, Minister Naughten is already fully engaged in policy development and issues relating to the climate change agenda within the newly expanded remit of his Department.

The extent of the challenge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in line with our EU and international commitments, is well understood by the Government, as reflected in the National Policy Position on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development, published in April 2014, and now underpinned by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015which was enacted in December 2015. The National Policy Position provides a high-level policy direction for the adoption and implementation by Government of plans to enable the State to move to a low-carbon economy by 2050. Statutory authority for the plans is set out in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

In accordance with Section 4 of the Act, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government must submit a National Mitigation Plan to Government for approval by June 2017 at the latest. As stated above, this function will pass to Minister Naughten once the necessary legal instruments are put in place.

Work is well underway on the development of the first statutory National Mitigation Plan, the primary objective of which will be to track implementation of measures already underway and identify additional measures in the longer term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress the overall national low carbon transition agenda to 2050. The first iteration of the National Mitigation Plan will place a particular focus on putting the necessary measures in place to address the challenge to 2020 but also in terms of planning ahead to ensure that appropriate policies and measures will be in place beyond that.

The ultimate objective of successive National Mitigation Plans is to incrementally achieve this low carbon transition vision by 2050. In that context, the National Mitigation Plan will have regard to Ireland's obligations under the current 2009 Effort Sharing Decision, the Paris Agreement and any likely future EU and international obligations that may arise, including new national targets to be agreed under the 2030 climate and energy package.

The Paris Agreement sets out a long-term goal to put the world on track to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees. In this regard, it is noted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been tasked with evaluating what will be the specific policy implications of this goal with a special report to be published in 2018. Notwithstanding this, the overall outcome of the Paris Conference means that the long-term objective that Ireland has already established in the National Policy Position, and that is now underpinned by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, namely to pursue substantial decarbonisation of the energy, transport and built environment sectors as well as pursuing neutrality in the land sector, will now be undertaken within a broader international context.