FOE Climate Pledge Campaign

by Oisin Coghlan - Friends of the Earth Fri Oct 21, 2005 09:52 info at foe dot ie 9 Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2 01-6394653

Climatepledge.ie to raise the political temperature on climate change
Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign to get all 166 TDs in the Dail to sign a Climate Pledge promising Ireland will do its fair share to tackle global climate change. A new website - http://www.climatepledge.ie - enables the public to email their local TDs urging them to sign the pledge.
Friends of the Earth Director, Oisin Coghlan said:
"This campaign is a wake-up call for Irish politicians and the public. We need to face up to the threat of runaway climate change. If we fail to act climate change will have catastrophic consequences. We can take the steps needed to reduce our carbon emissions now or face unprecedented upheaval and disruption in the future."

"Otherwise this century will see ever more storms, floods, droughts and famines. And the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world will be first and hardest hit. For them it will mean destruction of lives and livelihoods. For us it will mean flood damage, falling property values and spiralling insurance costs. But why wait for climate change to hit home, let's act before it's too late to make a difference", Mr Coghlan continued.

The Pledge which TDs are being asked to sign acknowledges that climate change is already happening and that humanity is causing it, but states that we have the power to stop it running out of control if we do enough, soon enough. It restates the international scientific consensus that to prevent dangerous levels of climate change we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 60% of 1990 levels by 2050. Crucially, it acknowledges the historical responsibility of rich countries like Ireland to lead the way as the vast bulk of past and present emissions come from rich countries. It commits each TD to doing all in their power to prevent dangerous climate change.

Friends of the Earth will be approaching each and every TD to ask them to sign the Pledge are looking to the public to play their part in supporting the campaign online http://www.climatepledge.ie.

You can read the pledge TDs are being asked to sign here: http://www.climatepledge.ie/download/pdf/climate_pledge.pdf

You can sign-up to support the pledge here: http://www.climatepledge.ie/takeaction/signup.html

You can email your TDs here: http://www.climatepledge.ie/takeaction/emailtd.html

by Michael Fri Oct 21, 2005 16:26

According to the Department of the Environment, Ireland's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are the fifth greatest in the world. Minister Martin Cullen - who's done much to increase the use of private transport and little to reduce waste and improve public transport - was quoted in 2003 as saying: "The European average is 10 tonnes per capita, Ireland's average is 18 tonnes per capita. "

My question is for the FEO campaign coordinators, and fellow travellers like GRAIN (sp?), Gluaiseacht, and others campaigning on Climate Change:
What do you propose we do about it? I know about the little things - the three "Rs" and so on. But what strategy do you propose for getting Ireland way down that leave table of global climate chaos creators?