Waterford's Grace O'Sullivan says the European Parliament must act on climate change before it's too late.
A debate is taking place about ambitious targets - including reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
MEPs will also decide on the 2030 emissions target.
The Green Party's Grace O'Sullivan is pushing for a 65 per cent reduction over the next 9 years.
I spoke on Climate Law ahead of tomorrow's final vote in Parliament. We need CLIMATE NEUTRALITY within a timeframe that gives hope of avoiding irreversible wipeout of life on earth. We need official, international, legally binding commitments that benchmark all against that goal pic.twitter.com/IbZB1rHblb
— Grace O'Sullivan MEP (@GraceOSllvn) October 6, 2020
The MEP, an ecologist who worked with Green Peace for 20 years, has been campaigning on climate change for most of her working life. She is a member of the European Parliament ENVI (Environment, Food Safety and Public Health) Committee.
"I've been focussed on this issue for over thirty years. Our debate here today - and our vote tomorrow - is a culmination of calls for action from citizens across the globe who recognise the emergency we're in. Climate Change effects not just every single human being on the planet but puts the entire globe, all life on earth, on the brink of annihilation: every living creature on land, the fish in our seas, every plant, every single living organism, every insect, every pulse and every seed of our dwindling biodiversity is at risk.
"We have to slash our greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement, within a timeframe that gives us some hope of avoiding a total wipe-out of life on our planet . In order to do that it's imperative that we set a truly ambitious target that will create the change we need by 2030, and that we have official, international, legally binding commitments that see every single decision we make as individuals, as organisations and as nations, bench-marked against the goal of Climate Neutrality.
