Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 July 2020
21. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the new climate action Bill due to be published within 100 days of the current Government will incorporate all the targets and ambitions as set out in the European Green Deal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16061/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraI fully support increased climate ambition at EU level and welcome the publication of the EU climate law proposal, including the delivery of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions at EU level by 2050. The EU climate law is currently under negotiation in the Council, and the impact assessment to increase the EU 2030 climate ambition will be published this summer with a view to reaching agreement later this year. While the targets and ambitions under the European green deal are still being negotiated, I will continue to progress Ireland's increased climate ambition. The programme for Government sets out our objective to more than halve our carbon emissions over the course of the decade. The action we take in the coming years will be critical in order to address the climate crisis, which threatens our safe future on this planet.
As Minister for climate action, I will lead on delivering our shared commitment to achieve an average 7% per annum reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 to 2030, and to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The 2050 target will be set in law in the climate action Bill. The Bill will also significantly strengthen the statutory framework for governance of the climate challenge in Ireland, including introducing a requirement on Government to propose carbon budgets for three five-year periods and decarbonisation ranges for each relevant sector.
I expect that Bill will be published in the first 100 days of our term in government and hopefully enacted as soon as the Houses are able to do so.
Will the Minister incorporate the specific targets set out in the EU green deal, that is, a cut of at least a 40% in greenhouse gas emissions in the EU below 1990 levels by 2030, at least a 32% share for renewable energy and at least a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency, in the climate Bill?
Those targets will probably not be ambitious enough. My sense from yesterday's European Council meeting is that there was a clear majority of Ministers representing a majority of states and population who were willing to look at a higher reduction target than 40% but a reduction of 50% to 55%. It has not been possible to get European Union agreement on it yet but I believe that it is close and must be achieved by the end of the year.
That will have knock-on consequences. To achieve the 32% target for renewables or the 32.5% efficiency target, it will not be sufficient to meet the higher target. It will require raising ambition across all sectors. Both the European climate Bill and our own legislation will focus on the net-zero target for 2050. It is then the job of the climate advisory committee to the Government and all bodies to set out the series of five-year trajectories that will allow us to meet that higher target.
Does the Minister believe that in the next step for greater ambition in the targets in the EU green deal, there is potential for Ireland to take a leadership role and go further in our own climate action Bill to address the need for greater ambition? Does the Minister have a date for when the Bill will come before the Houses?
I hope to have it in September or October, whenever the 100-day limit is. It must come within that sort of timeframe. The benefit of that timeframe is that it will be in tune with the timing of the European climate legislation.
It will also allow us to be in tune with the new national economic plan which has to incorporate the scale of change that brings. People have asked why the target is 7% per annum. The science demands it. It brings a scale of change without historic comparison in terms of the speed and change it will bring. This changes everything. The climate Bill is only the start. It is the enabling legislation to put in place one of the institutional structures that will help us to deliver it. Many other not only legislative measures but budgetary measures, economic plans and consultation will be required, consultation, as mentioned earlier, probably being the biggest, most important to ensure everyone is behind the scale of change we need.
