THE CHAIR OF the Oireachtas Climate Committee has said the proposed pathway to reduce emissions is “demanding” but “achievable” amid criticism that targets should be more ambitious.

The committee today released a report on the proposed carbon budgets which set out the maximum amount of greenhouse gases that may be emitted in Ireland during a five-year period, the first covering 2021-2025.

The budget proposals were put forward by the Climate Change Advisory Council last year. Environment Minister Eamon Ryan will bring a finalised plan to government for consideration later this month.

The Oireachtas Climate Committee last week voted in favour of approving the carbon budgets as proposed by the CCAC. 

The report on these proposals released today said that while ambition with the carbon budgets could always be greater, they are a “challenging but feasible pathway to achieving the reduction in emissions required”. 

Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins, a member of the Oireachtas committee, was one of three members to vote against the approval of the draft budgets as they stand. 

“These are the draft carbon budgets. They can be improved. They can be strengthened,” Higgins said. 

“This isn’t a matter of whether you’re for or against the carbon budgets, it’s a matter of ‘do you think the carbon budgets should be improved before they’re finalised and brought to the Oireachtas in a couple of weeks’ time?’

“As a wealthy country with historical emissions, we should be doing better than the average, not less than the average.” 

Committee chair and Green Party TD Brian Leddin defended the proposals, saying that any more ambitious pathway to cut greenhouse gas emissions “wasn’t realistic”.  

He said it is time to “bring the discussion on climate from the policy wonks and the stakeholders and experts to the ordinary people, to the citizens of Ireland”. 

“There’s no two-ways about this, that we cannot cut emissions quickly enough. That’s simply the way it is,” Leddin told The Journal. 

“What is being proposed the committee felt was a very demanding pathway through to 2030, but one that was achievable if there is a whole of government response, and the committee felt that any other pathway wasn’t realistic.” 

The TD said the emissions reduction pathways set out by the CCAC is one of the most ambitious in the world. 

“It’s going to be very hard to achieve and we need to start talking now about the various measures that are going to achieve that and bring that to the wider public.

We’ve chosen a very ambitious pathway, now we really need to get on with it. There isn’t any time to lose.

Input at committee meetings 

A number of academics, scientists and stakeholders appeared in front of the climate committee last month to discuss the proposed carbon budgets.

Senator Higgins said today’s report “fails to actually appropriately represent a lot of the testimony” put forward. 

She particularly criticised that committee input from Kevin Anderson and Barry McMullin was not mentioned in the body of the report. The opening statements of all contributors are included in the report, and some other commentary is referenced in the main text. 

Professor Barry McMullin from DCU said last month that the budgets “should be regarded as absolute maximum and the Committee should give serious consideration to revising them downwards”.

Professor Kevin Anderson from the University of Manchester said the “unprecedented” emission reduction challenges Ireland faces stems in part from “its own choice to essentially ignore three decades of clear scientific analysis and advice”.

Higgins said their testimonies not being directly addressed “doesn’t reflect very well on the committee and isn’t up to our usual standards”. 

Brian Leddin said the input from stakeholders is “absolutely accurately reflected” in the body of the report.  

Emeritus Professor of the geography department at Maynooth University John Sweeney appeared in front of the committee last month.

He said today: “I think it’s quite clear that the committee were thinking more about feasibility and a pragmatic budget rather than catering for what is a climate emergency, and taking steps which are appropriate for an emergency such as we’ve taken with the pandemic over the past two years.

“There are issues down the road in terms of the sectoral allocation which is going to be very difficult anyways, but I think the question of what is Ireland’s fair share of the remaining carbon budget has not really been properly addressed in the proposals.”

He said the first budget covering 2021-2025 in particular “should be stricter because any slippage in that budget will have very serious consequences for the next five-year budget”.   

A public consultation on the carbon budgets is currently underway and will end tomorrow evening.  

Ambition

The committee report said that there were “some differences in opinion” among stakeholders as to whether the carbon budgets should be more ambitious. 

But the report said: “It was made abundantly clear that the Committee should approve the budgets without delay in order to move the implementation of policy forward.

“The Committee agreed that in spite of some differing opinions as set out in the body of this report, stakeholders share the one main climate ambition including recognising the need for immediate and significant change to make the transition to a carbon neutral economy.”

Overall, 11 committee members voted in favour of the budgets as proposed being adpoted by the Oireachtas and three voted against. 

The report included a number of recommendations agreed between committee members. 

These included a recommendation to hold an ongoing review of carbon budget backloading and for the government to immediately prepare measures to ensure a just transition in all sectors of society.