Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that this government “will not ratify or vote” for the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement because it is “not satisfied with the environmental protections that are contained” in the agreement.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Varadkar said that Ireland is “not alone” in not supporting the Mercosur trade deal, with countries such as France and Austria “with us on that”.
Credible argument against Mercosur
However, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment said that for him to “make that argument credibly in Brussels – and I will make that argument in Brussels and Geneva – we need to pull our socks up environmentally”.
“We can’t say that we’re against ratifying that agreement because we want to protect our own farmers – that won’t wash – we have to say that we’re against ratifying that agreement because the environmental standards in Brazil aren’t high enough,” the minister said.
“But we have to do better to be credible. We can’t be giving out about Brazil cutting down their rainforest when they’ve more trees than us.”
Climate Action Plan
Following the publication of the Climate Action Plan, the Tánaiste said that in Ireland, “we’re not leaders yet”, but “we do want to be”.
“Ireland is a small country – we’re only 5 million people – but if you divide the amount of greenhouse gases that we emit by the number of people in the country, we’re actually one of the highest emitters in the world.
“And we have a duty to do our part to bring our emissions down and we need to do that long before we tell other countries to reduce their emissions.
“I think anyone who ever doubted climate change can’t doubt it anymore. We see it all around us: the fires; the floods; the milder winters; the warmer summers; the shocking biodiversity loss.”
He said that “climate-shaming farmers” must stop, as “we need to bring farmers with us”.
“We believe it is possible to reduce emissions by 22% or more over the next 10 years without reducing food production and – let me be very clear about this – we don’t want to reduce food production.
“Ireland feeds 45 million people – nine times the number of people we have in the country – that’s something I’m very proud of.”
In regards to reducing the number of cattle in this country in order to achieve emissions targets, the minister said: “I don’t accept that has to be the case”.
He added that government is “keen to sit down” and work with farm organisations to help farmers make the required changes.