Process of ratifying agreement on climate change to begin

The Government is due to begin the process of ratifying the Paris agreement on climate change at this morning’s Cabinet meeting.

A memo from Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten is expected to be accepted by his ministerial colleagues. He will subsequently bring a motion to the Dáil seeking approval for the global climate agreement.

Ireland will be the second last EU country to ratify the agreement which was brokered in the French capital last December.

A total of 195 countries, as well as the EU, agreed to restrict global average temperature to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Mr Naughten’s move will bring an end to weeks of uncertainty surrounding the Government’s intentions on ratification.

Rubbish

He yesterday dismissed as “absolute rubbish” claims that the delays had been designed to allow Ireland get more concessions in the agriculture section, which had been a problem area in terms of compliance.

Mr Naughten said his aim was that Ireland would have the agreement ratified before the next UN global conference on climate change in Marrakesh in November.

Speaking in Luxembourg after a meeting of environment ministers yesterday, Mr Naughten said it would be difficult to get the motion through the Oireachtas in time but he hoped other parties and TDs would facilitate its passage.

He dismissed any suggestion the Government was dragging its heels or seeking concessions from other EU countries in return for ratification. He said the Attorney General had advised the Government it would need to have an indication of the overall costs of complying with the Paris agreement and it took time to follow that advice.

Ballpark

“It was never going to be possible to have full details of the figures as negotiations within Europe will continue into 2017. We worked very hard and once we had ballpark figures, we knew that we could do it.”

He said that by the time the agreement was ratified he hoped to be able to give as much information as possible to the Dáil on the costs and requirements for energy, transport and agriculture – the three main sectors outside the emissions trading system.

Mr Naughten said yesterday’s meeting of environment ministers was the first to discuss the obligations of the Paris agreement.

The EU ratified the agreement on October 5th but also called on individual states to do likewise. Overall, 77 countries have ratified, amounting to over 55 per cent of the overall target.

Another issue that arose at yesterday’s meeting was a logistical problem that will affect Ireland when Britain leaves the EU. There is a requirement on each country to hold 90 days of oil supplies in storage for emergencies. It must be stored in EU countries. At present some of the Irish reserve is in the UK.