March 26th, 2019
Fine Gael has withdrawn an amendment that would have weakened
a key emissions reduction target set to be included in the Committee on Climate
Action report due out later this week.
The report will lay out the Committee’s recommendations on key
policy moves that the State needs to make to decarbonise our economy by mid-century.
The report, out this Thursday, follows six months of
scrutiny by Committee members and will contain over 40 priority recommendations
based on a wish list outlined by the Citizens’ Assembly.
Overall, the latest draft of the report seen by The
Green News is widely ambitious as the committee recognises
that the “window of opportunity” to reduce emissions and avoid severe climate
impacts is “rapidly closing”.
There appears to be strong agreement across all parties and
independents on the Committee, although there remains some disagreement on the
proposed carbon tax increase.
The latest draft of the report shows that the Committee will call for important measures to ramp up renewables and home retrofitting, to bring down agricultural emissions while supporting on-farm biodiversity, and to facilitate greater community involvement in the low carbon transition.
The Fine Gael amendment, however, looked to remove the inclusion of a 2050 net zero emissions target in new climate legislation set to also be recommended by the committee.
The proposed legislation will “provide a new legal framework for tackling climate change”, the draft report states, and ensure a “continuous climate policy” that transcends short-term electoral cycles.
The proposed new legislation would be introduced this year and include the
strict 2050 target in line with the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change.
Fine Gael’s amendment, first reported on by The Green News on Sunday, looked to replace this recommendation with a provision for “an ambitious 2050 target” outside of the legislation and based on advice from a new expert Climate Action Council.
The leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryan TD told The Irish Times today that he would have been surprised if Fine Gael persisted with the amendment that he said would let a lot of sectors off the hook.
To achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the draft report states that
emissions – currently over 60 million tonnes – would need to fall by five to 10 per cent per
year.
The proposed legislation would also set
ambitious climate and renewables targets and require five-year carbon budgets
across all departments.
Remaining amendments are set to be voted on in private session this evening, with the committee to consider the report in public session on Wednesday afternoon before releasing the report to the public on Thursday.
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