Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 June 2014
369. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an update on his climate change policy in preparation for the Paris conference in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26729/14]
View answerThe 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) will meet in Paris in December 2015 to agree a new global treaty on climate change that will be applicable to all Parties. The Agreement will signal a significant shift in how the world will deal with the challenge of climate change. The milestones on the way to the Paris COP have already been agreed. At COP19 in Warsaw in 2013, Parties agreed that they would bring forward their intended, nationally-determined, contributions - which will become mitigation commitments under the new Agreement - well in advance of the Paris Conference and in the first quarter of 2015 for those in a position to do so. The EU, along with the US and others, has committed to that timetable.
COP20 , which will be held in Lima, Peru in December 2014, will further develop elements for a negotiating text and will decide on the type and level of information that will be needed to accompany Parties’ contributions to ensure they are easily understood by all. This will enable the consideration of intended contributions in terms of their aggregate adequacy in relation to the global goal of keeping the average temperature increase to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
Ireland participates in the UN climate process through the EU, and Ireland’ s preparations for the Paris Conference will be finalised in the context of the overall contribution by the EU and its Member States. The EU contribution, which the European Council has committed to bringing forward in the first quarter of 2015, will be informed by the outcome of the ongoing discussions on the recent Communication from the European Commission on a policy framework for climate and energy in the period from 2020 to 2030.
At national level, I recently published the National Policy Position on Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development and the General Scheme of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development Bill. 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 over the period to 2050. Proposed statutory authority for the plans is set out in the General Scheme of the Bill. In anticipation of the planned legislation, work is already underway on developing a National Low-Carbon Roadmap to 2050, the primary objective of which will be to identify additional measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress the overall national low-carbon transition agenda.
