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THE DÁIL APPROVED Ireland’s first-ever carbon budgets last night, setting a limit on greenhouse gas emissions the country must stay under to reach important climate targets.
A motion to approve the budgets passed through the Dáil without a vote, which was deemed unnecessary because of a lack of opposition.
When a vote was called on a motion, only the Rural Independents group and Independents Michael Fitzmaurice and Verona Murphy stood to oppose the motion, which was fewer than the 10 required to carry out a formal vote.
Though the budgets passed with little dissent, the debate saw TDs in favour of climate action raise concerns about weaknesses they identified in the budgets, while the Rural Independents argued the budgets would be detrimental to farmers.
The first proposed carbon budget cycle, which lasts until 2025, allows for a total of 295 million tonnes (Mt) of emissions to be produced.
The limit is 200Mt between 2026 and 2030 and 151 Mt between 2031 and 2035.
Proposing the motion to approve the budgets, Junior Minister Ossian Smyth said it was the “final step in the adoption of the carbon budgets but it is only the beginning of the implementation process”.
“Once these overall, economy-wide carbon budgets are adopted and have come into effect, the Minister and his Department will begin the process of preparing the sectoral emissions ceilings,” Smyth said.
“These ceilings will determine how each sector of the economy will contribute to the achievement of the carbon budgets.”
He said the sectoral limits should be presented to the government for approval by the end of June.
The Climate Action Plan 2021, which was published back in November, published draft target ranges for how far each sector would need to reduce its emissions, compared to 2018, to cut the country’s overall emissions in half by the end of the decade:
Electricity – 62% to 81%
Buildings- 44% to 56%
Transport – 42% to 50%
Land and forestry emissions – 37% to 58%
Industry – 29% to 41%.
Agriculture – 22% to 30%
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Some of the issues raised during the debate concerned whether the carbon budgets go far enough to fulfil Ireland’s international obligations; the need to protect people who may be vulnerable to changes that the budgets bring; and the unbalanced “backloading” of the budget that puts off some of the burden to the later years. Many TDs highlighted worries that the government’s climate policies are not doing enough to tackle the crisis.
Sinn Féin TDs welcomed the budgets but repeated the party’s call for the carbon tax to be quashed.
Newly-appointed Labour leader Ivana Bacik pointed out there is a “degree of backloading of our reductions between 2025 and 2030″.
“I acknowledge this is to facilitate the adoption of new policies and practices but, again, we need to see a greater sense of urgency in these budgets,” Bacik said.
“The IPCC was clear that there is a very small window of three years to meet targets. We know the effects of global warming are cumulative, so we will be worse off for not taking quick action now.”
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitemore said that the carbon budgets do not live up to the promises of the Programme for Government.
“The Programme for Government states that the government is ‘committed to an average 7% per annum reduction in overall greenhouse emissions”. This is reiterated four times over two pages,” Whitmore said.
“There is reference to a 7% average reduction and yet when we get the carbon budgets and get the opportunity to scrutinise them, it turns out that it is not 7% but 5.7%.”
Green Party TD Brian Leddin, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action, said that figure is “an interpretation that we do not agree with”.
Whitmore responded that it is “not an interpretation, it is a fact, that is what the CCAC said”. Leddin insisted: “That is its interpretation.”
“Okay, so the organisation that deals in science, which is what Deputy Leddin said at the beginning of his contribution, is now interpreting,” Whitmore said.
Whitmore, who is a member of the Oireachtas committee, said:
When I look at the key actions promised by Government I absolutely hope that it gets this right because in three years’ time when we are facing into another election, I do not want to realise that the targets are not being met and the implementation is not there.
“At that stage, we will not have the time to ramp up to get it done properly,” she said.
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People Before Profit/Solidarity TD Paul Murphy proposed an amendment to delete the text of the motion and replace it with one that would decline the carbon budgets for 2021 to 2025 and 2026 to 2030 following the IPCC’s latest report, which warned of the closing window to mitigate the climate crisis.
The amendment, which did not pass, called for a motion that would describe the budgets as not being aligned with the State’s commitments entered into under the Paris Agreement.
It called on the Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan to consult with the Climate Change Advisory Council again and amend the budgets accordingly and for the third budget to be revised “to ensure it reflects our climate obligations based on the latest science and the principles of climate justice”.
In a statement after the Dáil debate, the Rural Independents group called the carbon budgets “crazed” and criticised other Opposition parties for not voting against them.
“It goes to highlight how many TDs are disingenuously playing both sides – doing one thing in the constituency, but another in the Dail, hoping for un-detection,” Deputy Mattie McGrath said.
The rural TDs argued the carbon budgets would hurt the farming industry – though the Irish Farmers Association previously told the Oireachtas committee that a 22% emissions reduction in agriculture would be “challenging but achievable”.
In January, the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action scrutinised the proposed budgets, which were drawn up by the Climate Change Advisory Council, over several days, hearing from CCAC members, scientists, and sectoral representatives.
The Oireachtas committee voted in favour of approving the proposed budgets in February and published a report that recommended an ongoing review of ‘backloading’ – which makes the budget lighter now and heavier in the future and was identified as a concern – and for the government to ensure the transition is just in all sectors of society.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Leddin, who chairs the committee, said that “in the end the budgets were endorsed by joint committee but not unanimously”.
“It was a difficult process. We are a highly collaborative committee and each and every member works very hard and diligently, week in, week out,” he said.
“People took their positions fairly and legitimately. In the end we did endorse the proposed carbon budget by a strong majority. I respect those who have different views.”
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@Pateen Johncruck: more like wait for the man in your ear piece to think before feeding you the new script off the top of his head. You never notice these pauses until now? All these politicians are told exactly what to say
@Minamino: when your country is bolted to the north of a country being run by a megalomaniac, you have to be very, very, very careful what you say in public.
@Minamino: They are probably just reminding themselves of what they decided to say earlier. Off the cuff comments about the big, and recently a bit unhinged, neighbour right beside you are unwise.
@JackSimpson: ‘virtue signaling ‘ is a term that’s been doing the rounds lately with these right wing cranks. It’s an obvious retaliation to their guff been labeled hate speech and I guess they needed to come up with something to use as they attack by nature. The fact that you’re attacking somebody because they are displaying virtue shows your base intent. Stop watching FOX, you’ve been had
@Brendan Heery: didn’t he give powers to his own police force to arrest and prosecute natives that were protesting against their land being forcibly taken from them so for an oil company. No you probably didn’t get feed in your social media platforms as some celebrity didn’t comment on it.
Disagree. The abomination in the White House is causing many to choose their words carefully because he’s so thin skinned and liable to make really stupid policy decisions that effect millions.
@Jesus Christ: he did answer the question by saying it was time to listen, that racism is everywhere and enough is enough. If he had answered the question on trump like the media wanted him to, then he would have totally missed the point.
@Jesus Christ: you mean he didn’t give the answer some people wanted him to. Why should he be drawn into it that way. He was dead right to turn it on themselves and basically say ( in the words of jesus the christ) “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
He would have known that question was coming. His response sounded well-rehersed from a prepared script.
I wonder if the pause was intentional to make it seem like he’s a deeper thinker and that he was just coming up with the words that followed in the moment but he messed up the ‘lengthy pause for the gravity of the situation’ by carrying it on a bit too much.
FAKE NEWS us park police have already issued a statement saying they didnt fire tear gas they were smoke grenades and they also had no knowledge trump was going to the church for said photo op. A lie can travel half way round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/uspp/6_2_20_statement_from_acting_chief_monahan.htm
@paul starrs: just because the police didn’t know it was for a photo op doesn’t mean it wasn’t for a photo op. See what the leader of the church he went to had to say.
@Dave O’Keeffe: he didnt order them to use tear gas on ” peaceful protesters” the caches of projectiles and weapons they found and the injured officers might be a giveaway
@Thomas Harrington: no such thing as a “concussion” grenade. Concussion is a medical diagnosis not a military ordinance term. Unless you are suggesting that the good bishop is a military ordinance expert…….
Ps, it’s a percussion grenade. Basically a loud banger, one of the safest methods to clear s croud.
@paul starrs: it was still before the curfew. If you were queuing for last orders and were told the bar had closed thirty minutes early I’m sure you would be more than a little surprised.
These were federal police and agents, not DC police and not under the control of the DC police chief. So who issued the orders?
@paul starrs: it mentions police saying there were weapons, it also mentions reporters saying that’s bs. At least I provided a source showing both sides.
@Shazam37: I don’t really think it matters, even if it was staged to be honest. Nothing would change if it were not. Same question, same pause, same answer. Trump is a budding dictator and many people are looking on in horror at what the US has become in 4 short years.
Plenty here are suggesting this shows he “thinks before he speaks” because he paused for 21 seconds before answering. Some have suggested oh he’s better than Trump – he thought about his answer.
The reality is that’s all optics. And the people who think that have been hoodwinked through their own sheer nativity.
The reality is that staged, spun responses like this damage democracy. You can’t get a straight answer from a leader. Lies. Spin. Misleading the public.
As the article says the HONEST answer is “I don’t like him or how he does business but we rely on the States as major trading partners”
The public need to be better informed and realise the actual choices rather than be infantilised by things like this.
Canadians should be aware – sure we can criticise Trump, justifiably, but that might mean you all lose jobs and income.
Same goes here. Let’s make adult choices – and that begins by knowing the actions and the consequences.
@Shazam37: First off, thanks for spending the time to write out a good reply.
“The reality is that staged, spun responses like this damage democracy. You can’t get a straight answer from a leader. Lies. Spin. Misleading the public.”
- This is related to the point I was trying to make above when I said it didn’t matter that it was staged because I don’t think that the answer would change. So I would disagree that what he said was a lie or misleading.
“As the article says the HONEST answer is ‘I don’t like him or how he does business but we rely on the States as major trading partners’”
- It would certainly be more blunt, but the real world doesn’t work this way, and what you have said is a little idealistic. Truth is he needs Trump and the giant economy on his doorstep. Trump has pulled out of climate deals, global health organizations, peace treaties, all to the detriment of his own country. He may well do something drastic if his nearest neighbour were so forward is his condemnation.
Excellent answer, that carefully constructed answer required thought. Trudeau only needed 21seconds. I don’t think Trump could have managed an answer like that in 21 seconds
Forget about anything he said eventually, the 21 seconds said it all.
I understand diplomacy and the importance of trade but just once I’d like to see a politician on the same level as him lay into him. Preferably face to horrible orange face.
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