Protesters call on Government to publish delayed national climate action plan

About 1,000 people turned out in Dublin for the international global day of action for Cop31 on Saturday. The demonstrators, who marched from the Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House, called for the Government’s climate action plan to be published. It was due to be published in January, but has not been approved yet by Cabinet. They also want a ban on the proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in at Cahiracon in Co Clare along the river’s estuary.

The Government claims it will operate as an emergency reserve in the event of a major disruption to the natural gas pipelines from the UK, which provide almost 80 per cent of Ireland’s natural gas needs. It is due to come on stream in 2030. Stop Climate Chaos co-ordinator Sara Hurley claimed the Government’s failure to invest in renewables is one of the reasons why Irish consumers have some of the highest energy prices in Europe. She also believed the LNG terminal will steer “Ireland into long-term fossil fuel dependence”.

Stop Shannon LNG coalition member Tom Spillane said opposition to the terminal “is the most important thing anyone in Ireland can do for the climate right now”. Climate protestors outside Leinster House in Dublin on Saturday. Photograph: Ronan McGreevy/The Irish Times “Minister [for the Environment Darragh] O’Brien is currently fast-tracking a US fracked gas terminal to be built on the Shannon Estuary, to fuel data centre expansion and lock us into decades of fossil fuel dependency, at a time when we need to be scaling up renewables,” he said.

“We need the help of everyone in this campaign as this fracked gas terminal would affect everyone in Ireland.” The demonstrators heard from a young Nepalese student Washin Ansari who spoke about the devastating floods in his country last April which left 1,400 people dead and thousands still missing. “What hurts me even more is the injustice. Nepal contributes only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse emissions. We did not create this crisis.

Yet our glaciers are retreating,” he said. Nepalese student Washin Ansari addresses the crowd. Photograph: Ronan McGreevy/The Irish Times “Our mountains are becoming more dangerous. Our communities are being destroyed. And our people are paying with their lives.” He called on the international community to provide climate finance. “We need support for loss and damage that does not push vulnerable countries further into debt. “Because no country should have to borrow money to survive a crisis it did not create.”