It is my turn now. It is clear that the political establishment are impressed with themselves and with COP 26 to date, but are the young people impressed? They saw a conference opened up by Boris Johnson, dressed in green, but know that this is a man who slashed tax on domestic flights and supports subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. They saw Jeff Bezos, the rocket man, pledge $2 billion to protect the environment. Yet, in one single year, this man's company, Amazon, emitted 44.4 million metric tonnes of CO2, more than the annual emissions of two thirds of the countries in the world. Mr. Bezos is typical of the men who lead the 100 corporations responsible for 71% of global emissions since 1988. The capitalist politicians, whose strings they pull, have organised 25 full COPs to date, the end result of which is a world on track for a 2.7°C increase in temperatures. Why on earth should the young generation place one iota of faith in these politicians to solve the crisis?

Tonight, I will pack my waterproofs, set my alarm and get ready to travel to Glasgow in the morning. Along with a busload of young Socialist Party colleagues, I will join the International Socialist Alternative contingent, which will be part of the 100,000-strong protests on the streets of Glasgow this weekend. My hope for the future rests with the young people who will be on the streets around the world, including in Cork, Dublin, Belfast and other Irish cities, this weekend, and not on the Government politicians in the COP conference hall.

The Government delegation trotted off to Glasgow waving climate plan promises high in the air and solemnly posing as being among the best boys and girls in the global classroom. Only last week, the Government's Climate Change Advisory Council proposed a 4.8% CO2 emissions reduction target for 2022. Yesterday, we found out that this week's Cabinet meeting will lower that target. What was announced with some fanfare last Tuesday will be quietly watered down tomorrow. Best boys in the class, indeed. Yesterday, the Taoiseach signed off on a pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30%. No sooner was the ink dry on the agreement than the Tánaiste told the Dáil that our cuts will be just 10%. Behold, the best boys in the class kowtowing to big agri-business and the big dairy farmers, rather than protecting the interests of the next generation. The Taoiseach told the conference that Ireland will end deforestation by 2030. He did not tell the conference that his Government currently oversees the cutting down of 5 ha of trees for every 1 ha planted. Massive people-power pressure will need to be exerted on the Taoiseach and the best boys in the class for this promise to be upheld.

Will the Taoiseach tell the Dáil why a Government that claims to be serious about tackling climate change will not sign up to the pledge, currently on the table, to cut methane emissions by a modest 30%?

The first point I would make is that the prism through which the Deputy sees climate change really is in the overall world view he has about what he calls the political establishment, and his perception of an elite capitalist caste that is responsible for all the ills in the world and for climate change itself. He believes that nobody else has a role to play. As he does with every other issue, the Deputy is using climate change to attempt to bring down what he calls the capitalist system in the world, even though in a country like Ireland, the level of state involvement is enormous in terms of the economy and society. It does not fit neatly into the Deputy's ideological standpoint. I reject the approach that he is taking in respect of saying that the only way we can deal with climate change is to take down the world order and collapse governments everywhere and the system of enterprise that we have in Europe or elsewhere. That would create chaos and would not advance efforts to tackle climate change. That would be deeply dishonest and disingenuous.

All of us have a role to play in changing patterns of consumption and how we adapt and change our lifestyles. We have never said we are the best boys in the class, which the Deputy disingenuously asserted. We are behind as a country and we have to move very fast to catch up. One of the biggest issues with afforestation has been serial objections to every kind of forest over the past number of years. We need to broaden the range of trees that we plant in this country. Far more native trees must be planted. Schemes will emanate from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to create new income streams for farmers. The biggest issue we have in agriculture, for example, is encouraging and incentivising farmers in terms of connections to the grid, microgeneration, the use of solar panels and anaerobic digestion. I met with a farmer at COP26. I did not meet the Jeff Bezoses of this world at all. I met Tom Galvin from Dingle, who travelled to COP26 with a group from the Dingle peninsula. They are a very innovative and creative group of people who want to create a particular approach across the peninsula to this climate issue, and who, as I understand following my discussions with them, represent a model in terms of a multidisciplinary approach for how we can deal with this issue. Mr. Galvin informed me that approximately 100 farmers in the Dingle peninsula area have signed up to this approach. He said that we need to approach the issue from the ground up and work with farmers. I told him we would do that.

I met a group of young people from UCC at the conference. UCC is the only university in the country that is accredited to COP. The group travelled over to COP26, just as the Deputy will. They will be there over the next two weeks as part of the civic society contribution. I met many young people in Glasgow who are very enthused about what is happening. The Deputy can be very cynical and dismissive. That is fair enough; it is his perspective. One big change that occurred in the past five or six years was the US withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. President Biden has brought the US back and has rejoined the agreement. He is also driving the agenda with the EU. Europe will be the first continent to be climate neutral by 2050, but, of course, the Deputy rejects the edifice of the EU and his view is that we should take it down too.

The earth is not dying; it is being killed. The people who are killing it have names and addresses. My neighbours and constituents will do their bit and I urge them to do a bit more. However, it is not their names and addresses that folk singer, Utah Phillips, was referring to; it is the names and addresses of big oil, big gas, etc., and the big banks that finance them. The Taoiseach talked about chaos. They are people who are threatening the world with climate chaos.

The World Economic Forum, a conservative body, has just published a report in support of a polluter tax on big business carbon polluters. It states that such a tax, set at $75 per tonne for higher-income countries and then graduated down, could reduce carbon emissions by 12%. Will the Taoiseach support the introduction of a polluter tax on big business? I would, but I would go further.

We do not control what we do not own. Global corporations must be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and placed into the hands of society, with dirty industry shut down, massive retraining and reskilling and alternative, well-paid jobs in the green energy sector - a world for people and the environment, not a world for profit, which is the system that the Taoiseach defends.

On carbon taxation, we have brought in a broad measure that will do two things. It will disincentivise the use of fossil fuel over time and it will also give us the resources to retrofit the homes of ordinary people in this country to enable them to reduce heating costs on a sustainable basis over a long period. There are very ambitious plans there in terms of the thousands of houses that we want to retrofit through grant schemes and retrofitting local authority houses and social housing more generally. That is a step change from anything that has been put forward before. There will be significant challenges in terms of delivery and so on, but we are determined to do it.

On big oil and gas, we have taken steps in this country in the legislation that we have passed to forbid the issuing of future oil and gas exploration licences.

We have taken that step and this is happening with increasing regularity. Fossil fuels are a big enemy here but we have to make a transition over time and do it in a realistic way.