Leo Varadkar’s promise to speed up action on climate change has been branded insincere by the Green Party after the government’s decision to grant consent for an exploratory oil and gas well off the Kerry coast. Eamon Ryan, the Green leader, said it “beggared belief” that the government was allowing Ireland’s fossil fuel resources to be harvested. He added that it was extraordinary that permission was given to CNOOC Petroleum Europe to drill in the Porcupine Basin, 232km off the coast. The drilling is expected to last for up to 150 days and will enter the seabed at a depth of 2,200m.
Times 29th May 2019 read more »
This was not so much a Green wave as it was a Sinn Féin ebb (-5.7 per cent) in favour of a Green flow (+3.9 per cent), but nobody doubts that the debate on climate change and the need to protect our environment has just found a new high-water mark. At the next election, it will be reflected not so much in the Green vote as in the adoption of Green policies by all of the other political parties. The taoiseach has already told us that he has got the message and it is likely that this will stiffen the government’s spine when it delivers its Climate Action Plan in a few weeks’ time. As we move as quickly as possible to a day when we will need no oil we should, where possible, extract our own, rather than abrogate that responsibility to far-off countries that may have lower environmental protections. Yet the latest licence and extraction in general is being opposed by environmentalists who act locally and think locally. Ireland has already taken the climate change agenda to its heart. From a purely economic perspective, Irish business should embrace the same agenda.
Times 29th May 2019 read more »