Climate Change (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage

Part of Executive Committee Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 8:00 pm on 27 September 2021.

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Photo of Clare Bailey Clare Bailey Green 8:00, 27 September 2021

I thank the Member for that. Mr Irwin, I have reams of stuff that I could come back to you with on that. I never said, by the way, that the CCC was politically point-scoring. It also states:

"A net-zero GHG target is not credible unless policy is ramped up significantly."

To say that a net zero target covering all GHGs cannot credibly be set for Northern Ireland would, therefore, appear to be a judgement of what is deemed politically feasible rather than what is scientifically or technically achievable. There are reams of it.

The time for talking and debating is over. We need action and to start moving on. That is the important part. We can sit here for another 10 years debating smaller points. What is really needed is action to begin the mitigations.

We heard claims that Northern Ireland is small and how little of a difference we in Northern Ireland can make on a global scale. There is no doubt that we are small. In other opinions, that makes us better primed to play our full part in mitigation measures. We make up 0·02% of the global population, yet we emit 0·04% of all global emissions. That is double our fair share on the grand scale.

As a developed country, we emit more, so we also have a duty to decarbonise faster. The worst impacts of climate change will be felt in less-developed countries. We need to take responsibility for that damage and for those local people and to start thinking globally while acting locally.

Last week, I was in conversation with an ex-president of the Marshall Islands, a set of islands set to be wiped out soon unless radical mitigation measures are imposed. She told me that, despite them not causing the problem, they are going above and beyond their capacity in mitigation because their population and land are at risk.

What will we do in the future with climate refugees? How will we mitigate the mass migration of people whose land is disappearing?

Those are the things, Mr Irwin, that we should be really getting stuck into, because we are at the tipping point. We are at the point of irreversible damage, and it is happening under our watch. This is the choice that we are making. We can afford to do it, and arguing that because we are little, we will not make a difference sends a message to every other small country in the world that there is no point in even trying, and that is not a message that the Green Party will ever support. If you add up the emissions of all the countries in the world that produce less than 1% of total global emissions — just like us — it adds up to more than the total emissions of the USA. Every player, big and small, must play its part and must do its fair share in bringing a secure and sustainable future in which no one in this world is left behind.

It is worth noting that there are quite high levels of environmental and climate ambition in many current and upcoming DAERA strategies, and the green growth strategy, which was mentioned, is only one example. Therefore, why can we not enshrine that ambition in law? There is one big main difference between law and policy, and that is that legal obligation must be met and is not negotiable. We can be held accountable, so why is accountability the fear factor? Why are we so afraid of being held accountable? If the ambition is there, enshrine it in law so that we know that it will be achieved and so that every Department will work towards enabling people and planet not just to survive but to thrive.

The Minister has been heavily critical of my Climate Change Bill during debates. Indeed, in the Chamber, he referred to it as a:

"Disney World Bill". — [Official Report (Hansard), 25 May 2021, p29, col 2].

Minister, we are all hoping that this second Bill is not to be the Mickey Mouse Bill. As it stands, the Green Party cannot support such unambitious legislation, because we know that Northern Ireland deserves better, and acknowledging that only as we begin the road to climate change mitigation and only as everything begins to change can we be ambitious really shows poor leadership. The Green Party will be focused on stepping up and doing all that it can to make this Bill fit for purpose. Are we not tired of constantly being the laggard and being told that we cannot achieve on ambition? It is not unreasonable to aspire to something better. The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) that will be delivered by the end of this mandate must reflect the fact that, yes, we can do better, that we can be ambitious and that we will achieve, because our very future depends on it.

During this debate, I received an email from one of our young climate activists, who was on strike in Cornmarket on Friday. As I spoke about a 2045 net zero target, she wanted to let me know:

"2045 is not ambitious at all. It is far too late. I will be 43 years old in 2045. Please, please realise that 2045 is not ambitious when you know what we are headed for — 1·5°C of warming by 2025. Even this is catastrophic for humanity. When you realise this, you will realise that aiming for 2045 is COMPLETELY crazy. The private Member's Bill needs to be better."

I concur with that young person, because it is her future that we hold the responsibility for.