Shock as ESB peat-powered plant at Shannonbridge refused permission by An Bord Pleanala

Cessation of use of peat as a fuel ‘key component within national climate and energy policy’.

An application under the Strategic Infrastructure Act for the continuation of the ESB’s peat powered plant at Shannonbridge, West Offaly, beyond 31 December 2020 has been refused by An Bord Pleanala. read full story / add a comment

JUDGEMENTS FROM HIGH COURT AND SUPREME COURT ON INDUSTRIAL PEAT EXTRACTION DUE THIS WEEK.

Cases that originated in a 2013 ruling by An Bord Pleanala that industrial peat extraction requires planning permission have led to two judgements due this week in Ireland’s highest courts that may result in temporary closure of the industry.

The environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] originally referred three test cases of industrial peat extraction to An Bord Pleanala [ABP], the planning appeals board, in 2010, involving well-known companies like Westland, Bullrush, and Harte Peat. The peat is used for fuel, horticulture, mushroom growing, animal bedding, and as an industrial sorbent. None of the sites of up to 180 hectares in extent had planning permission from the local authority or a licence from the EPA. read full story / add a comment

Environmental and transport campaigners have set a plan in motion to liberate Dublin’s South William Street from cars for the day.

As the above photograph, provide by the group shows, South William Street is currently closed to through motor traffic. IrishCycle.com understands that the group of protesters will not get in the way of local access, including cars exiting from the Brown Thomas Car Park. read full story / add a comment

A challenge to the Government’s new regulations exempting industrial peat extraction from planning controls was heard in the High Court at a sitting yesterday in Cork. Scheduled for two days, Justice Garret Simons concluded proceeding in less than a day and reserved judgment for a week until Tuesday 23 July. read full story / add a comment

Challenge to planning exemption for industrial peat cutters opens in High Court in Cork

A challenge to the Government’s new regulations exempting industrial peat extraction from planning controls opens today (Monday 15 July) in the High Court.

Sitting in Cork over two days, Justice Garret Simons will hear the application by Friends of the Irish Environment for a stay on the operation of the Statutory Instruments signed into law by Ministers Richard Bruton and Eoin Murphy in January 2019. read full story / add a comment

Concerns that Ireland could meet its renewable energy targets by propping up Estonia’s oil shale industry with biomass co-firing

Friends of the Irish Environment have urged Minister for Climate Action Richard Bruton to ensure that Ireland does not purchase credits from Estonian co-firing of wood in oil shale power stations in order to meet our renewable energy target. [1] read full story / add a comment

UN Expert Report predicts ‘Climate apartheid’
Governments urged to act without delay

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, has dramatically highlighted the failure of governments, UN treaty bodies to recognise the impact of climate change on poverty and its social consequences in his recent report to the UN Human Rights Council, according to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment.
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A draft of Cork’s transport plan for the next 20 years includes policies which would decrease the percentage of people who cycle in the “the real capital” from 2.8% in 2016 to 1.3% in 2036.

“Hard not to look at this figures and wince,” the Cork Cycling Campaign said on Twitter. ( https://twitter.com/CorkCyclingCrew/status/1142116392466100224?s=20 ) “#CMATS ‘idealised’ scenario wants to see cycling modal share fall to 1.3% in Cork.”

The public consultation for the plan, the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy, runs until Friday.
https://www.nationaltransport.ie/consultations/consultation-on-cork-metropolitan-area-draft-transport-strategy-2040/ read full story / add a comment

Indaver has advised CHASE by letter of plans to apply to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an industrial emissions licence for their Ringaskiddy incinerator in the coming weeks, even though a decision has not yet been delivered following the CHASE High Court challenge to planning which closed on Monday 27 May 2019. (letter below) read full story / add a comment

European Citizens’ Initiative seeks end to aviation fuel tax exemption
8250 signatures required from Ireland within one year of May 15, 2019
Leaked EU Report shows benefits of ending airlines tax breaks.

A group of students from across the EU are seeking one million signatures supporting an end to the kerosene tax exemption for aviation within the EU. The supporters are invoking an EU Instrument that allows citizens to suggest concrete legal changes in any field where the European Commission has power to legislate. read full story / add a comment

Irish Cement Factory’s burning Aughinish red mud ‘not fully assessed’
Details of green house gas reductions not justified in burning waste

The assessment of the use of toxic waste including red mud from Aughinish Aluminum as a fuel for the Irish Cement factory in Limerick has not been properly assessed, according to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment. read full story / add a comment

Coveney appeal rejected over Cork’s toxic Haulbowline Site
TD to challenge Táiniste over his knowledge of 2017 Report detailing ongoing environmental pollution

As Táiniste Simon Coveney appeals to environmental campaigners not ‘to turn what is a hugely positive story in Cork harbour into something negative’, Clare Daly, Independent TD, has tabled a Parliamentary Question asking him ‘When he was made aware of the Report ‘‘Former Haulbowline Factory, Haulbowline Island, Cork’’ commissioned by his Agents for the clean-up of the abandoned steel works on Haulbowline Island, Cork County Council, and dated March 2017’. read full story / add a comment

State must notify public of Haulbowline contamination or face High Court

The State must erect signage at the entrance to Haulbowline Island and the new East Tip park notifying the public of the health risk from toxic airborne dust, fibres, and gases within 28 days or face the High Court for failing to fulfil its obligations under the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations. read full story / add a comment

At a time of growing climate chaos and biodiversity loss, a public event in Castlebar, Co. Mayo on May 17th will look at the importance of food sovereignty. This issue centres on how communities will secure their food supply in a time of ecological peril. read full story / add a comment

Overinvestment in oil and gas creates risks for investors, regardless of whether the world is effective in tackling climate change. Either investors face assets being stranded as demand for fossil fuels falls in a transition to a low carbon economy, or the overinvestment contributes to excess emissions from fossil fuels, the failure to transition and the financial costs of a dramatically changed climate. read full story / add a comment

Saturday 20th saw another #Extinction Rebellion rally take place in Dublin. Our video shows as it marches to block O’Connell bridge. read full story / add a comment

The decision to revoke the licence of the Norwegian multi-national Marine Harvest to grow salmon at their site in Deenish on the Kerry coast has been welcomed by the environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE], who first published the Department’s recommendation to revoke the licences for overstocking on their website in September 2017. read full story / add a comment

Research published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has discovered that Ireland’s water supplies contain hazardous levels of pesticides. Irish Water has also acknowledged the danger. read full story / add a comment

ARE TREES THE NEW COAL? UN International Day of Forests Documentary Release
UN International Day of Forests on Thursday 21 March

A documentary about the burning of wood at an industrial scale for energy is being released today to coincide with UN International Day of Forests.

"BURNED: Are Trees the New Coal?" tells the story of the accelerating destruction of our forests for fuel. read full story / add a comment

FOREST BIOMASS CHALLENGE TO CO-FIRED PEAT PLANTS

The inclusion of forest biomass as a renewable fuel fatally undermines the goals of the new European Renewable Energy Directive [RED II], according to Plaintiffs from six different countries in an action filed today in the European General Court in Luxembourg. Each has suffered, in diverse and particular ways, from the consequences of the Directive’s biomass energy policy. read full story / add a comment