Ireland’s Climate Bill slammed

February 28, 2013 Oliver Moore Latest from EU Member States, Recent updates

Environmental and developing world social justice organisations in Ireland have slammed Minister Phil Hogan’s new Climate Bill. After months, indeed years of delay, the Bill, announced on 26th February, lacks targets, campaigners say. Stop Climate Chaos, a coalition of 27 groups working together on climate change, expressed “frustration at the weakness of draft climate legislation.”

“This Bill doesn’t have what is needed to be effective. Without a named target for 2050 there isn’t certainty surrounding government policy, and the legislation won’t deliver a low carbon Ireland. It is simply too weak to work” Sorley McCaughey from Christian Aid said.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has indicated that developed countries like Ireland must reduce our emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050. There is no justification for omitting this solid scientifically based objective from the Bill“, said Ciara Kirrane from Trócaire.

“Economic transition to a low-carbon economy is a long-term goal and emissions targets should be set for every 5 year period up to a decarbonised economy in 2050. Without targets there is nothing in the Bill to drive the transition.” said Ciara Gaynor from Oxfam.

Ireland has the 10th highest ecological footprint per person in the world. “Ireland’s per capita aggregate GHG emissions are the second highest in the EU” according to Ireland’s own Environmental Protection Agency and Central Stastics Office. Agriculture accounts for almost 30% of Irish emissions.

Climate change has slipped down the list of priorities in Ireland quite spectacularly since the recession begun, which coincided with the Green Party leaving its minority role in government: “the total number of articles on climate change in Irish newspapers fell from 2,780 in 2009 to only 972 in 2012” according to Harry McGee.

The Bill announced retains the binding EU targets for 2020, but puts off hard decisions for the 2020 to 2050 period. The Minister said “there are no easy answers to the greenhouse gas mitigation challenge…ultimate decisions on the way forward will be taken on the basis of a fair hearing for all stakeholders, and will provide a platform for a strong stakeholder and wider-society consensus on the fundamental objective of becoming a low carbon, climate resilient society with a competitive low-carbon economy over the period to 2050.”

Instead of binding targets, a climate policy analysis report from the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), outlines a carbon-neutral vision for Ireland by 2050. This document lists “economic prosperity, recovery and social development” as the first of five guiding principals on climate action.

It does at least make reference to an “oddly prescient” 17th Century Haiku in the preface: “even in Kyoto, when I hear the cuckoo, I long for Kyoto”.

Considering the gravity of the climate change challenge, what’s perhaps more prescient, and also emblematic of the report’s logic, is the informal meaning attached to that bird’s name.

About Oliver Moore 216 Articles

Dr. Oliver Moore is the communications director and editor-in-chief with ARC2020. He has a PhD in the sociology of farming and food, where he specialised in organics and direct sales. He is published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. A weekly columnist and contributor with Irish Examiner, he is a regular on Countrywide (Irish farm radio show on the national broadcaster RTE 1) and engages in other communications work around agri-food and rural issues, such as with the soil, permaculture, climate change adaptation and citizen science initiative Grow Observatory . He lectures part time in the Centre for Co-operative Studies UCC.

A propos d'Oliver Moore
Oliver voyage beaucoup moins qu’auparavant, pour ce qui concerne son activité professionnelle. Il peut néanmoins admirer par la fenêtre de son bureau les mésanges charbonnières et les corbeaux perchés au sommet du saule dans le jardin de sa maison au cœur de l’écovillage de Cloughjordan, en Irlande. L’écovillage est un site de 67 acres dans le nord du Tipperary. Il comprend d’espaces boisés, des paysages comestibles, des lieux de vie, d’habitation et de travail, ainsi qu’une ferme appartenant à la communauté. Les jours où il travaille dans le bureau du centre d’entreprise communautaire, il profite d’une vue sur les chevaux, les panneaux solaires, les toilettes sèches et les jardins familiaux.

Ce bureau au sein de l’écovillage constitue en effet un tiers-lieu de travail accueillant également des collaborateurs des associations Cultivate et Ecolise, ainsi qu’un laboratoire de fabrication (« fab lab »).

Oliver est membre du conseil d’administration de la ferme communautaire (pour la seconde fois !) et donne également des cours sur le Master en coopératives, agroalimentaire et développement durable à l’University College Cork. Il a une formation en sociologie rurale : son doctorat et les articles qu’il publie dans des journaux scientifiques portent sur ce domaine au sens large.

Il consacre la majorité de son temps de travail à l’ARC 2020. Il collabore avec ARC depuis 2013, date à laquelle l’Irlande a assuré la présidence de l’UE pendant six mois. C’est là qu’il a pu constater l’importance de la politique agroalimentaire et rurale grâce à sa chronique hebdomadaire sur le site d’ARC. Après six mois, il est nommé rédacteur en chef et responsable de la communication, poste qu’il occupe toujours aujourd’hui. Oliver supervise le contenu du site web et des médias sociaux, aide à définir l’orientation de l’organisation et parfois même rédige un article pour le site web.

À l’époque où on voyageait davantage, il a eu la chance de passer du temps sous les tropiques, où il a aidé des ONG irlandaises de commerce équitable – au Ghana, au Kenya, au Mali, en Inde et au Salvador – à raconter leur histoire.

Il se peut que ces jours-là reviennent. Pour son compte Oliver continuera de préférer naviguer en Europe par bateau, puis en train. Après tout, la France n’est qu’à une nuit de navigation. En attendant, il y a toujours de nombreuses possibilités de bénévolat dans la communauté dans les campagnes du centre de l’Irlande.