Paul Murphy: UN says fossil fuel plans risk >3C, calls to act

Thanks, Cian Córle. There is a new report from the UN Environment Programme out today and it concludes that fossil fuel production planned by the world's government vastly exceeds the limited needed to keep the rise in global heating to 1.5 degrees. In fact, it finds that it is 110% extra, so it would be heading for more than 3 degree rise. And in a way that encapsulates the kind of new form of climate denialism which is dominant throughout much of the world's governments, which is to accept the science, say it is clear that human generated climate change is having a huge impact, to say that we need to do what we need to do and then simply to fail to do it, because to doing so would mean taking on, in this case, big oil. I mean the five biggest oil and gas companies between them have $5 trillion worth of oil reserves and they need to stay in the ground, those companies need to be put out of business and the world's capitalist governments obviously refuse to do so. But the kind of version of that in Ireland is reflected in the approach of the government to big agribusiness and reflected in the discussion around the carbon budgets, which is to say, don't worry, we will do the hard part of the job after the government is gone. And don't worry, the biggest emitting sector, we are not actually going to reduce the size of the national herd with no indication of how we are actually going to bring down emissions. I thought the exchange earlier between the Taoiseach and Deputy Healey Ray was instructive, because Deputy Healey Ray was accusing the Taoiseach of saying the national herd has to be cut and the Taoiseach was very defiantly saying, no, no, no, I definitely didn't say that. But what is missing is some basic honesty that yes, the national herd absolutely has to be cut if we are to meet our climate targets. But that doesn't have to mean and must not mean a reduction in living standards for small farmers, small farmers should be guaranteed a living income, they should be made payments for carbon sequestration and ecosystem services. But it does mean challenging the model of agriculture, which currently operates in the interests of the big agribusiness companies. Deputy Murphy, I had a query in terms of he said the equivalent of big oil companies or the big agribusiness. I don't know who you're referring to. Who are they? But who are they? Larry Goodman. Is it the farmers? I'm just wondering through the chair whether you were afraid to use the term farmer and you just used this ideological term big agribusiness. There's a lot of ordinary farmers. Who is an ordinary farmer? Who is an ordinary farmer? Who is an ordinary farmer? That's the juxtaposition you make all of the time. In respect of my engagement with Deputy Healey Ray, that was in respect to the accuracy of what he said. He was simply inaccurate in what he said. He couldn't produce the quote. That's the point. We will challenge that when it's said. I have no recollection ever for saying that. I will tell you one thing, Deputy. I do think we need food security. I think Ireland is a leader in environmentally, probably far more friendly emissions targets than the other country. We are world leaders in terms of friendly, we can do better. We have to do better. But there is always a balance between food security and the climate agenda. It's a challenging one. But we do need to produce food in Europe. And we can see what's happening. Very often how the balance changes. You look at Afghanistan. I was reading recently where Afghanistan in the 1970s was cosmopolitan. People were in a far better condition. Look at Afghanistan today. So you've just got to be balanced. You've got to do things in a progressive way. We've got to make farming more environmentally friendly and so on. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.