Pressure mounted this week on Green Party leader and Minister of the Environment John Gormley to publish the Climate Bill promised in December 2009. Then, John Gormley said the bill would be delivered by the end of 2010. By Malachy Browne. Photo (left) and protest video (below) by Paula Geraghty.

On 11 December 2009, John Gormley unveiled the Framework for the Climate Change Bill 2010 which he described as "the cornerstone of our efforts in meeting ever more demanding national and international obligations post-Kyoto". (Details below)

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"Ireland has great potential and can become a great leader in Climate Justice," former President Mary Robinson said at a debate in Trinity College Dubiln today. The debate explored ways to build greater awareness amongst political leaders and the broader public about the inter-connectedness of climate change with issues of development and social justice. Chaired by Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources Eamon Ryan, the debate is one of several in the Transforming Ireland series. By Christina Finn Add a comment

There were heated exchanges at the Sandymount and Merrion Residents' Association (SAMRA) meeting in October over the Dublin City Council's Development Plan which proposes extending the 'inner city' to include areas outside the current canals area. By Sandy Hazel.

Under the proposal, Lansdowne Road (pictured), Beech Road, Bath Avenue and stretches of the Dodder will become part of the inner city according to residents at the SAMRA meeting. The redefinition of this boundary will enable the city planners to allow high rise development in these areas.

 

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Levies will be placed on the operation of the proposed Ringsend incinerator "regardless of threats by Covanta to sue" Minister John Gormley told a local meeting in October. By Sandy Hazel

John Gormley assured residents that figures quoted in recent media reports "are wrong" regarding the costs of stopping the controversial incinerator project at Poolbeg. "The figures just don't stack up," said Gormley at a meeting of the Sandymount and Merrion Residents' Association (SAMRA). "The cost of going ahead with this project far outweighs the cost of ceasing it," he said.

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Dan Brennan's farm in Castlecomer, Kilkenny overlooks the Ormonde Brick factory where shale from a local mine is converted to building materials. Trees on Mr Brennan’s farm are dead and his cattle don’t gain weight. A report by the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency was commissioned to find out why. Mr Brennan has long alleged that the brick factory is the cause of these problems, though there is no proof of this. Department officials were not allowed to investigate the brick factory as a source of pollution in this latest report.

Mr Brennan wasn’t satisfied with the results of the report, which found some of the highest levels of cadmium ever recorded in the EU but failed to blame any source for the contaminant. He petitioned the European Parliament. The EU Commission is now investigating the cadmium pollution allegations that Mr Brennan has been making against Ormonde Brick for the last 19 years.

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RX3, Ireland’s first ever conference on recycling industries and initiatives, was held in Dublin recently. Politico went along to hear the key-note speaker,the founder and CEO of Terracycle and America’s foremost eco-capitalist Tom Szaky, talk about his revolutionary concept: recycling as big business. By Edward O’Hare.

It all started with worm excrement. Eight years ago Tom Szaky the head of Terracycle, the fastest-growing and most lucrative green industry in the world, was just another guy trying to nurture a couple of cannabis plants in his basement. When Szaky left home he put his precious plants in the care of a few friends.

(Picture: Tom Szaky)

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A scientist and economist have linked the current financial crisis to an increase in oil consumption. Ireland's energy strategy is utterly inadequate, says Eddie Hobbs. By Vincent Ryan.

Global daily oil consumption could be represented thus: an unbroken thread of oil barrels, standing lip to lip, looped around the equator, embracing the globe. It would take only 80 million barrels, three million less than is consumed daily. Humanity has bound itself to oil, and as production falls and consumption rises the bind will tighten.

Dr Colin Campbell, a retired British Petroleum geologist living in Cork, wrote The Coming Oil Crisis, which is credited with having convinced the International Energy Agency of the importance of peak oil (see panel below). Dr Campbell believes peak oil has already passed, and he attributes the current financial crisis to a spike in the price of oil.

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The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security yesterday, 24 March, to discuss a number of key issues in relation to energy and electricity needs.

Chairman of the Joint Committee, Seán Barrett, said in advance of the meeting, “Our recent report ‘Meeting Ireland’s Electricity Needs Post-2020’ highlighted the need for Ireland to exploit its available wind resource and concentrate research efforts on the development of ocean energy where it could derive competitive advantage and become a niche player”.

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