We are delighted that Bríd Smith’s Climate Emergency Bill passed through to the committee stage in the Dáil. The Bill calls for a ban on the issuing of new fossil fuel exploration licences and would declare a climate emergency. We need to leave 80% of fossil fuel in the ground if we are to have any hope of tackling climate change.
I spoke on the Dáil #environment committee today about ways in which we have to bring the pressure from below to bear on those at the top, in order to get environmental issues taken seriously. Good to see young people there – lets make sure they inherit a planet that has not been destroyed by the greedy
KILLING THE PLANET ON THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT. Last Dáil session of the week – maybe half a dozen there.That’s the priority given to Climate Change and what we must do NOW. So I proposed we do like we did with Committee on the 8th Amendment, ie listen to the Citizen Assembly recommendations and get in climate experts. Here’s the clip explaining.
Press Release- Solidarity- People Before Profit
15/11/2017
Bill says Minister would not issue any new licences for exploration of fossil fuels while there is a climate emergency
Bríd Smith TD today moved a bill in the Dáil entitled “Petroleum and Minerals Extraction Bill (Climate Emergency Bill 2017).
The bill states that a climate emergency exists while levels of Co2 in the atmosphere exceed 350 ppm. (350 ppm is the recognised safe level of atmospheric C02 widely accepted by the scientific community) and while this continues, the Minister would not issue any new licences for exploration of fossil fuels.Read more »
Brid Smith TD, who is on the Dail committee that deals with Climate and the Environment, has warmly welcomed the work of the Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Action. The TD said today that the recommendations that were endorsed by an overwhelming majority show that ordinary people, when presented with the scientific facts and possible actions are prepared to take action.
I spoke today in favour of the bill on Wind Turbines, put forward by Sinn Féin. But there are wider issues of democracy at play here, apart from the crucial concerns about global warming. Why did our government give the go-ahead for more oil and gas exploration from our seas? Why doesn’t our government engage properly with the communities affected by proposed wind farms? Why do the laws in Germany for instance, demand that turbines be twice the distance from people’s homes than in Ireland. Could it be because FF and FG are that far up the backsides of the big corporations involved? I wonder.