The challenge by Irish environmentalists has proven that the 'New Fortress Energy' Shannon LNG consent process will take years and may now never come to fruition.

'Safety Before LNG' stated that today's decision was to be expected and does not come as any surprise and thanks the 'Friends of the Irish Environment' for fighting to prevent climate chaos from the environmental madness that is the US fracked gas industry. read full story / add a comment

An Open Letter signed by 33 environmental NGOs objecting to biomass burning in Irish peat power stations and calling for those plants’ closure [1] has been submitted as part of an objection to ESB’s West Offaly planning application [2]. Dogwood Alliance [3] in the USA and Biofuelwatch in the UK and USA [4] slam ESB’s application for a post-2020 consent for the power station and its gradual conversion to biomass.
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The €500 million proposal to build a Liquified Natural Gas [LNG] terminal on the Shannon Estuary in County Kerry is in the High Court tomorrow because the Planning Appeals Board ignored Ireland’s legal obligation under the Government’s Climate Change legislation. read full story / add a comment

Executives from the transnational financial institution HSBC contacted British military intelligence to discuss targeting of anti-fracking activists, according to documents released by Anonymous Europe. read full story / add a comment

Call for Oral Hearing for Galway City Ring Road

On the last day for submissions on the proposed Galway City Ring Road, environmentalists have called on An Bord Pleanala to hold an Oral Hearing.

According to Friends of the Irish Environment, the project will undermine national policy in Smarter Travel - A Sustainable Transport Future and its target to reduce work-related commuting by car from 65% to 45%. The environmental charity alleges that because the road will encourage greater use of private motor vehicles in Galway over the period up to and beyond 2050, it is also contrary to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 which set a national objective of transition to a low carbon climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy. read full story / add a comment

In a decision that will have significant repercussions for the licensing of Ireland’s salmon farms, the Commissioner for Environmental Information has found that the Minister for Agriculture’s refusal to release information in the annual Department Inspection Reports about the standing stocking rates on salmon farms was not justified. read full story / add a comment

Ireland has been singled out as the worst performing country in Europe for taking concrete action to tackle climate change for the second year in a row.

The 2019 Climate Change Performance Index indicates that Ireland has continued along the same climate action trajectory over the past 12 months, placing us 48th of a total of 56 countries examined in the study. read full story / add a comment

Climate change has been completely underestimated thanks to the pressure from the Coal & Oil backed deniers that have put such pressure on scientists that they have been afraid to tell the truth and what their gut feelings are about the state of play. The reality is we are past the point of no return and the root problem is capitalism need for endless growth, although that is not addressed here -Indy Editor

Global warming will happen faster than we think
Three trends will combine to hasten it, warn Yangyang Xu, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor.

Prepare for the “new abnormal”. That was what California Governor Jerry Brown told reporters last month, commenting on the deadly wildfires that have plagued the state this year. He’s right. California’s latest crisis builds on years of record-breaking droughts and heatwaves. The rest of the world, too, has had more than its fair share of extreme weather in 2018. The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change announced last week that 157 million more people were exposed to heatwave events in 2017, compared with 2000. read full story / add a comment

Ireland is one of six legal cases brought against Governments worldwide seeking stronger action against national greenhouse gas emissions which are being highlighted today at the UN Climate talks in Katowice, Poland.

Clodagh Daly, speaking on behalf of Climate Case Ireland, joined speakers representing legal challenges against the European Union, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and the US Federal Government.

The legal actions all aim to ensure that governments deliver the urgent cuts in emissions necessary to avert catastrophic climate change. read full story / add a comment

OPEN LETTER: A call for more funding for walking and cycling is needed, but that call to date has lacked clarity on the quality needed and that is having practical effects. read full story / add a comment

The Court has today (Fri 19th Oct) at the request of Bord Pleanala put the hearing of the Judicial Review of the Ringaskiddy Incinerator planning permission back a month. The hearing is now scheduled to begin on 19 March 2019.

The Court has made some revisions to the timeline for exchange of documents in the meantime. The extension was triggered by the Board not meeting its deadline of last Friday for filing its Statement of Opposition. It explained to the Court that its legal team was in difficulty as the Board Chair had resigned and the new Chair only takes up office on 30 October. They asked to be allowed to file their Statement by 9 November. read full story / add a comment

New IPCC report on 1.5°C shows the urgency of transformational policy change if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. But Ireland is still lagging behind.

The IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C is the most important climate science report of the decade. It offers the most exhaustive and authoritative assessment of the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and the action needed to stay below this threshold. The report will hugely influence international, EU and domestic climate policy making over the next few years. read full story / add a comment

Peat permitted as animal bedding due to ‘exceptional circumstances. Ban on use on organic farms also lifted

The Department of Agriculture has responded to objections about Teagasc’s recommended use of peat for animal bedding by stating that the authorisation has only been made in the ‘exceptional circumstances of the current fodder and bedding shortage’.

riends of the Irish Environment [FIE] had written to the Minister objecting to a recent Teagasc Factsheet entitled ‘Alternatives to straw bedding’ which recommended peat as an alternative to straw for animal bedding. The environmental charity’s submission provided evidence that Bord na Mona and independent operators are aggressively marketing peat for animal bedding this autumn. read full story / add a comment

Leaked memo shows business tactics to undermine climate change targets

BusinessEurope, the largest group of business interests in Europe – which includes Google and Facebook as well as IBEC– has advised its members to oppose the ‘new increases of ambition’ as the European Commission is considering whether to set more ambitious climate goals. The issue will be determined in December at the COP24 conference in Poland.

The memo, obtained by Greenpeace Europe, comes as a UN draft report due for publication in October is known to be calling for ‘rapid and far reaching’ changes. read full story / add a comment

Indirect support to burning peat through a Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy to support electricity generation from three peat powered plants when co-fired with biomass has been challenged as it is leading to significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the price of biomass to home users, forcing them to use more fossil fuels. read full story / add a comment

European Commission issues Court proceedings against Ireland over water quality
More than 1 million Irish drinking water consumers affected by chemical exceedences

The European Commission has opened an infringement case against Ireland in the EU Court of Justice about the exceedances of the permitted level of the chemical trihalomethanes [THMs] in Irish drinking water. The proceedings, resulting from a complaint by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), cover not only the failure to meet the WHO and EU standards in water supplied to over 1 million consumers , but also the failure to comply with the obligation to ‘inform consumers promptly and give the necessary advice’. [1] read full story / add a comment

The wildfires that struck Rafina, north east of Athens, have now claimed at least 80 lives with the number set to rise as many are still missing. This terrible catastrophe shows the interaction of climate change and austerity, both the result of a society that puts people before profit.

The fires in Greece take place in the context of an intense heat wave that is global in scale and has produced fires not only in Greece but in Northern Sweden above the Arctic Circle. Brid Smith TD visiting her sister in Sweden reports temperatures of 32C in the shade and 40C in the sun. In hotter parts of the world such as Algeria and Iran they are soaring well over 40C and approaching the limits of human habitability.

Fires, floods , droughts and intense storms – extreme weather in all its different forms – is what climate change means, not just rising sea levels in the future, and they are happening now. read full story / add a comment

CHASE has applied to the High Court for permission to launch a judicial review against An Bord Pleanála’s decision to approve planning for Indaver Ireland’s incinerator at Ringaskiddy.

The application was mentioned in Court in Dublin this morning, 19 July 2018 by Maurice Collins Senior Counsel on behalf of CHASE. The matter was adjourned and will be heard next Tuesday morning, July 24th at 10.15am. It is anticipated that a decision will be made on that day on the request by CHASE for permission to proceed. read full story / add a comment

A submission by an environmental watchdog has flagged alleged pollution incidents arising from Dublin Airport’s carparks. An application is before An Bord Pleanala under the Strategic Infrastructure Act to allow the permanent use of 10,880 long term car parking spaces on 36 hectares of land. This is approximately half of the current total capacity of 22,902 cars which currently have only temporary permission. read full story / add a comment

Permission, dated 30 May 2018, has been granted by An Bord Pleanala. News was received this morning that the Bord have overruled Inspector Derek Daly’s recommendation to refuse permission. See full documentation online, including Inspectors reports and Bord Directions. See http://www.pleanala.ie/news/SIDS%20Ringaskiddy%20Decisi...N.pdf read full story / add a comment