Roderic O'Gorman: The Energy Crisis Is The Climate Crisis

Today the 22nd of April is Earth Day and this day has been marked since 1970 for 56 years people around the world have used this date to speak for and act for environmental protection around our planet and it's appropriate therefore that on Earth Day this house supports the motion I'm proposing today and delivers a powerful message. The energy crisis is the climate crisis. On behalf of the Green Party I'm proposing this motion this morning as people across our country experience the consequences of another global spike in the prices of energy. The origins of this energy price crisis is our country's over-reliance on fossil fuels. The war in Iran has for the second time in four years shown how our economy is at the mercy of the whims of Trump, of Putin, of Netanyahu and of the Ayatollah. Ireland needs to be able to generate its own energy so we can make our own choices and the only way to achieve true fuel security in Ireland is to stop importing it. Our country will remain vulnerable to energy shocks until we transition our entire economy on to renewable sources of energy. Countries that have already taken this step to move to renewables have economies that are better placed to cope in the current crisis and are therefore better able to protect their own people from the worst of the energy price spike. In Spain renewable energy now generates 50% of the country's electricity coming from wind, from hydro and increasingly from solar. Spain has seen dramatic growth in the use of solar power in the last six years and this is one of the contributing factors to Spain having the lowest wholesale electricity prices within the EU. This solar revolution didn't come about naturally simply as a cause of Spain enjoying a sunny climate. For decades solar supplied only a minor part of the country's electricity. However following the Ukraine invasion in 2022 the Spanish government, recognising their vulnerability to international energy shocks, took a deliberate policy decision to reduce their dependence on imported gas and move much of their economy towards renewables. In Denmark over 83% of the country's electricity is generated from renewable sources, from wind, from bioenergy and also increasingly from solar. Interconnection with other Nordic countries provides an additional layer of protection. These countries have shown that governments can lead the fight on decarbonisation but at the same time create energy independence for their economies and leave all of their citizens better off. And yet over the last 15 months this government has demonstrated that it does not possess the belief in this transition in order to be able to make the case for it convincingly to the Irish people. So on a national basis what should ministers be doing to progress this transformation of our energy systems? Firstly the government needs to speed up the delivery of the offshore wind farms that were successfully bidded for during the last government. On Commission Planola, the Marine Regulatory Authority, they need to be given additional expert staff so they can more quickly process and decide on applications for offshore wind and indeed for large-scale solar arrays. The government also needs to speed up investment and delivery of improvement in our ports. Right now Belfast is the only port on the island capable of supporting the construction of offshore turbines. This has to change. We need to develop Cork and Ross Lair so they can support the delivery of offshore wind but also that they can enjoy the benefits of the support industries and the economic development that will gather around sites where electricity generated by wind is brought onshore. What we need now are big and bold actions. The urgency with which we need to protect Irish households from this energy price shock and the next one that probably isn't far down the road. Over the last two months the government have allocated over three quarters of a billion euro in new emergency spending to deal with the energy crisis. And while this money is needed to protect households and businesses from the current crisis, not one cent of that money works to protect or prevent either our economy nationally or individual households from experiencing a similar price spike the next time there's a global emergency. Three quarters of a billion euro spent and it's all entirely reactive, entirely short-term and in no way changes or reduces our vulnerability. I want to make three suggestions about what this bold action could look like. The Green Party are proposing a new fully free solar program for all households in receipt of the fuel allowance. Eight solar panels would be provided to each home. This will mean solar will reach the most vulnerable households more quickly. It will reduce their energy bills at a time we know they can be subject to rapid price shocks. Investing 400 million euro a year for five years, that's about half the cost of the package that was agreed last week, would provide free solar energy to hundreds of thousands of energy poor households. Secondly we're proposing that the government create a social leasing scheme for electric vehicles for essential workers. This would be based on a scheme operated by the French government over the last two years. As a social leasing scheme it would operate where small-scale electric cars would be leased on a five-year basis by the state to essential workers who need to drive to work or have limited transport alternatives. This model, with the state making an initial contribution to reduce the monthly cost, would remove what I think we all recognize as the biggest barrier to EV uptake, high upfront costs. An upfront investment of 500 million euro, about two-thirds of what was agreed in the emergency package signed off last week, that would deliver 70,000 small electric vehicles under this scheme. These schemes are not cheap. Activating them would mean upending our spending plans this year and next year. I'm sure it would cause a couple of furrowed brows in officials of the Department of Public Expenditure as well. But at a time when we are in the enviable situation to be one of a small number of European countries reporting a significant budget surplus, the thought that we would go through a second energy crisis, again driven by our dependence on important fossil fuels, and not take big and bold action to reduce our dependence, I would see that failure to act as an act of national self-sabotage. Acknowledge that the climate crisis is the energy crisis. Recognize that the solutions aren't cheap, but understand that once those solutions are invested in, they can bring immediate savings to hard-pressed households and will lessen our energy insecurity and have that added benefit of decarbonizing our economy. Our third proposal today doesn't require major state expenditure. Over the last number of months, I and the Green Party have been urging the government to allow for the deployment of plug-in solar in Irish homes and take what steps that are needed to resolve any safety concerns related to it. In March, in response to the current energy crisis, the UK government announced that they would make plug-in solar panels available to British households. These easy-to-install panels have become commonplace in Germany. Over 1 million units have been installed. They're sold by major retailers, they're affordable, they're easy to install, and they can be used in apartments that can't have a rooftop solar. They can be used in rental properties as well. We know these panels could be saving people money on their bills now in the midst of an energy crisis. I've asked the Taoiseach about this issue last month, I've asked Minister O'Brien on a number of occasions, yet there is still no clarity on how or when any technical issues regarding the large-scale deployment of plug-in solar in Ireland will be addressed. Chair, the actions needed to shift our economy to renewables are not only taken at state level and indeed communities are coming together to fill the gap that government inaction has left. The Ennis Environmental Action Group has led a voluntary public information campaign to inform neighbours and friends about the grants that are available under SEAI schemes. This work has led to a 2.6-fold increase in applications for the warmer home scheme in that area. This sort of effective peer-to-peer sharing of information is helping to better spread information but also break down preconceived notions about these schemes and at a time where we know that people are looking to better understand how the retrofit process works, I'd ask government to look at what the Ennis Environmental Action Group did to see how they were able to make the case for transition within their community. Because the argument for changing our economy to run on renewables is no longer just an environmental one. The cost-of-living consequences of sticking with imported oil and gas should not be borne by another generation of Irish householders. The energy crisis is the climate crisis and as a country we have the natural resources to allow us to produce renewable energy at scale and right now we have the financial resources to support the development of these new industries. Let's not wait until the next war, the next fuel crisis, let's act now.