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6 December 2010

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OPINION | GREEN POLITICS FOR IRELAND AND THE WORLD

Republicans must champion a green recovery

BY EMMA CLANCY

AGAINST the backdrop of a profound economic crisis, the IMF/EU attack in the 26 Counties and the Tory-led attack in the Six Counties, defending the basic rights and living standards of the people of Ireland is the highest priority of all republicans, socialists and progressives.
Behind the scenes of the economic crisis, another global crisis is deepening - we are rapidly losing a safe climate. 2010 has been the hottest year on record.
The Global Humanitarian Fund estimated in May last year that climate change is already killing 300,000 people each year in the global south. Oxfam has warned that climate-related hunger “may be the defining human tragedy of this century”.
The planet has already warmed by 0.75°C on pre-industrial levels and the most up-to-date peer-reviewed climate science tells us that we must limit warming to no more than 1.5°C in order to prevent catastrophic, runaway climate change.
In September last year, a team of 130 climate scientists at the Met Office in London concluded that the planet would warm by a deadly 4°C by the middle of this century if carbon emissions were not immediately cut by at least 3% per year.
In a world 4°C warmer millions of people would become climate refugees due to rising sea levels. The higher temperatures would also weaken or interrupt the annual Asian monsoon, an irreplaceable water source for billions of people, the scientists said.
Despite the Kyoto Protocol, which was never ratified by the US, carbon emissions reached an all-time high last year. With little hope for progress on a new global climate treaty at Cancún, the onus is on the people of the world to voice the demand for urgent action to cap emissions and to pressure their governments to make the necessary steps to immediately make the transition to sustainable economies.
Sinn Féin has played a vital role in the European Parliament in campaigning for a strong and just global climate treaty that adopts targets based on science. We have particularly championed the cause of developing countries in demanding they be provided with adequate finance for adapting their economies to develop in a sustainable way and to cope with the impact of climate change.
Sinn Féin already has the most advanced climate policy of any of the major parties in Ireland. In local councils and in government in the North, we have taken many green initiatives, including investing in sustainable transport and agriculture, at the same time as addressing regional inequality in infrastructure.
Likewise, the party has endorsed the Green New Deal proposals, and the economic recovery plans we have brought forward, North and South, contain several positive proposals on developing the green economy.
There is more we can do.
As we have shown leadership across the island in outlining a path of socially-just economic recovery through stimulus instead of austerity, we need to show leadership on developing a sustainable society powered by green energy.

Delaying action
It’s difficult in the current circumstances to think beyond the immediate economic calamity brought about by the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government.
But around the world many governments are using the recession to justify delaying the necessary actions to cut carbon - when in fact it provides the ideal opportunity to stimulate a recovery in the short-term through creating jobs by investing in new green industries, energy efficiency, sustainable transport and carbon-neutral farming.
Then there are other countries that have embarked on ambitious plans to become carbon-neutral such as the small island state of the Maldives - threatened by rising sea levels - which has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2020. Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, Costa Rica and others aim to become carbon-neutral in the coming decades.
The Scottish Parliament passed a strong Climate Change Bill last year which pledges to cut emissions by 42% by 2020 and by at least 80% by 2050.
In Ireland, where we have the potential to source all of our electricity and most of our energy from indigenous renewable sources - wind, wave and tidal - and export renewable energy to our neighbours, the problem is, of course, the Government’s lack of political will.
The 26-County state is still behind on its Kyoto target, despite a recent drop in emissions - which occurred as a result of the recession, not climate policy.
There are serious limitations and loopholes in the draft Climate Change Bill and the carbon tax is aimed at raising revenue for the Government from ordinary people, not at punishing polluters or reducing emissions.

Public investment
The Green New Deal groups, North and South, have produced a series of proposals combining public investment, incentives and market mechanisms aimed at bringing about a green recovery.
Many of the proposals are valuable and should be campaigned for. For example, one proposal is the retro-fitting of the entire housing stock in the North, 90% of which falls short when it comes to energy efficiency. It is estimated that this would create 24,000 new jobs, slash the rate of fuel poverty in households in the Six Counties (now at 40%) and reduce emissions.
Public investment in renewable energy, sustainable forms of transport and energy efficiency should be centre-stage in Ireland’s recovery plan. It should be the political theme that underpins Sinn Féin’s alternative economic strategy.
We should consult with others - climate scientists, the Green New Deal signatories, trade unions, universities, other parties and stakeholders - to formulate an all-Ireland plan of specific, costed green stimulus measures that can create jobs and cut emissions.

Green future
Sinn Féin can lead the way in campaigning for strong Climate Change Bills in the Assembly and Leinster House that enforce emission reductions of at least 3% per year.
We need to reiterate that the laws of the physical world cannot be negotiated with, stalled or tricked. The reduction target for 2020 is critical and Ireland should aim to reduce emissions by at least 40% by that stage and by 90-95% by 2050.
Major debates are taking place, the outcome of which will have profound implications and which republicans should also intervene in. The most significant of these is around the merits, or lack thereof, of carbon trading - which has utterly failed to reduce emissions but is vigorously promoted as a solution by the fossil fuel lobby.
We should also engage further with the climate justice movement that is growing around the world and which is supported by the governments of Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador.
If Ireland is to become a leader in sustainability, we will have to lead the way. Together with Irish unity and equality, the Republican Movement needs to adopt sustainability as a central tenet.

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Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

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