Climate Change (No. 2) Bill: Consideration Stage

Part of Executive Committee Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 5:45 pm on 7 February 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Clare Bailey Clare Bailey Green 5:45, 7 February 2022

No, thanks.

I need to address claims that the protections being discussed today are no good, that had we set a different target last week we would not need them and that the 82% is, in and of itself, a just transition. We do not get to decide what a just transition is, because it is led by people, in collaboration with communities, and people overwhelmingly want strong climate action. Maybe that is what the struggle is here.

Some parties seem to have forgotten that agriculture is only one of many sectors that will have to make the transition. When an economic assessment says that the sector cannot go that 18% further because of the economic modelling, it is the economic model that we need to look at. All sectors contain workers who stand to be impacted by decarbonisation. Even with the Minister's target, all of those sectors would have to reach net zero. Do you really think that we should not put in protections?

If the Minister and others really think that 82% constitutes a just transition, even with the tunnel vision on agriculture, I advise that they read the CCC's report again. If you look at that report, you will see that its vision for agriculture is one where huge, efficient farms meet our food needs and small- to medium-sized farms no longer exist. That does not sound very fair and just to me, and it does not look like it represents our agriculture sector in Northern Ireland.

Upon the Bill's passage, the business-as-usual model of profiteering and overconsumption will have to end, not only because of the damage that it does to our planet and our environment but because of the risk that it poses to our citizens, people and communities. It is not right that so many people struggle to heat their homes and feed their families while others profit from that. At the end of this month, gas prices alone are set to rise again — by a third this time — after similar increases were set in December and October. Meanwhile, last Thursday, Shell, a global fossil fuel, gas and petroleum giant, announced that its profits have increased fourteenfold, so much so that it plans to hand $8·5 billion back to its shareholders.