Clare Climate Action Get Together and Focus Group

Clare PPN is hosting a working get together for those interested in the environment in County Clare.

It will take place on Monday July 29th from 6.30 – 9.30 pm in our premises in the Clonroad Business Park and we will provide lovely food from Moonbear catering, which means that it will be vegetarian and everything will be compostable for those attending because no one can work on an empty stomach.

Please email sue@clareppn.ie if you want to attend so we know what numbers to expect.

At the meeting we want to:

-Go through Clare County Council’s Draft Climate Adaptation Strategy which is currently open for submissions to get your views and ideas on it for a group submission which we will submit and to help any individual or group to make their own submission. The deadline for submissions for this strategy is August 9th.

– Advise environmental groups and individuals of the forthcoming elections for seats on the strategic policy committees of Clare County Council and explain how and why people might want to be involved.

-Discuss the Clare Environmental Network and how it and/ or Clare PPN might better serve environmental groups over the next few years.

All those interested in working for environmental sustainability and to mitigate climate change are welcome.

Don’t forget to book by emailing sue@clareppn.ie !

 

Clare PPN’s Submission to the Citizen’s Assembly on Tackling Climate Change

Clare Public Participation Network Submission to the Citizen’s Assembly

on the Issue

‘How can the state make Ireland a leader at tackling climate change?’

11th August 2017

Clare Public Participation Network wishes to make the following submission for consideration by the Citizen’s Assembly:

Leadership: Clare PPN calls for strong leadership from all levels of government to ensure that every department’s actions, and every piece of legislation passed is climate proofed. Further to this we call on the government to ensure no further licences for fossil fuel exploration are granted in Ireland’s territory. Clare PPN calls for every measure that is introduced to be poverty proofed and for mitigating steps to be taken if and when steps designed to tackle climate change have a negative effect on people’s socio economic status.

Climate Positive Communities Fund: Clare PPN wishes to suggest that the national government should pilot a programme where it rewards communities and individuals who come up with ways to reduce Ireland’s carbon footprint, to generate clean energy or to move towards food sovereignty in their own communities or in the country as a whole.  Clare PPN suggests that a national organisation employing people with the expertise to evaluate the climate impact of each proposal should be set up and should have the dual role of working to remove any barriers that exist for effective community action and of determining level of financial reward that each project merits. Clare PPN notes that based on current targets the Irish state will be liable for significant financial penalties for failing to meet its climate targets and suggests that the funding spent on a national programme such as the one suggested above would have the potential, if successful to reduce our exposure to such fines and to increase participation by the public in tackling climate change.  This suggestion would ensure that Ireland could help become a leader in tackling climate change by harnessing the power, creativity, local knowledge and resourcefulness that are features of every townland and village in Ireland.

Community Participation: Clare PPN calls on the government to radically alter how public consultations are conducted. In line with the Aarhus Convention it calls on the government to adopt policies and commit resources to ensuring that communities are engaged in decision making, planning, ownership, and ongoing management of any clean energy projects that are proposed in their areas. This approach should be followed in regard to all natural resources with particular reference to seaweed harvesting which appears likely to experience increased interest from private companies given recent findings that it may contribute to lessening climate impact from cattle farming.  Clare PPN wishes to stress that communities should be engaged from the conception stage in any project such as wind, wave or solar energy. Further to this communities must be resourced and supported to consider themselves as energy producers rather than only consumers. This requires significant action to ensure that micro producers of energy are able to efficiently and effectively sell any excess energy produced to the grid and able to access energy from the national grid. It is imperative than any blocks to this process or to communities becoming sustainable energy communities are removed. Clare PPN would like to call for the removal of prohibitions on Virtual Private Networks as these restrictions prevent collaborative approaches to sustainable energy generation for small groups or clusters where this may otherwise be an option.

Infrastructure: Clare PPN is based in a rural, agricultural county, parts of which are dependent on tourism for its sustainability. Clare PPN calls for more supports for environmentally sound tourism practices, for significant investment in environmentally sustainable public transport within the county and for support for innovative, sustainable land use including forestry. Clare PPN notes the existence of successful Community Supported Agriculture projects in Clare and wishes to commend and recommend these as models which could be developed and which are worthy of support. Clare PPN also notes the existence of wetland regeneration projects in County Clare and calls for these to be supported. Clare PPN also recognises the very successful Clare Bus company and call for additional support for them in their moves to become more sustainable, particularly in the area of EV based public transport. Clare PPN calls for a national and local programme of financial and administrative support for individuals and businesses to become self-sufficient in energy needs.

Any enquiries in relation to this submission may be directed to

Christy Sinclair,

Clare PPN Environmental College Representative

Phone: 087- 2244569

Email: sarah@clareppn.ie

Website: www.clareppn.ie

Twitter: @clare_ppn

Facebook: www.facebook.com/clareppn/

Report by Theresa O’Donohoe from March 27th’s Economic Development Meeting

Report by Theresa O’Donohoe from March 27th’s Economic Development Meeting

Theresa-O'Donohue

Theresa O’Donohoe is Clare PPN’s representative on Clare County Council’s Economic Development Strategic Policy Committee which discusses Enterprise, Planning & Tourism. She is an environmental college representative but because she is our only representative on this committee she keeps her eye on all developments. She reports on all the meetings she attends by using her own blog and her comments are always worth reading.  This is her post from yesterday’s meeting (March 27th 2017) https://theresaod.com/2017/03/28/economic-spc-report-march-27th-2017/

The next meeting of this committee will take place on May 8th and if there is anything you would like to have raised at it please give me a shout at sarah@clareppn.ie

 

 

 

Video workshops on Climate Economics, Sustainable Energy Communities and Food Sovereignty

On November 27th 2016 Clare PPN held its first ‘GreenShoots Gathering’  in the Glor Theatre in Ennis.

The day included talks, networking, a film screening and some great workshops which we had filmed. If you missed them you can watch them here:

Emanuela Russo runs Leaf and Root Community Supported Agriculture Project in County Galway and is the Coordinator of the Nyeleni Europe food sovereignty newsletter http://nyelenieurope.net/

Professor Terrence Mc Donough is Professor Emeritus of Economics from the National University of Ireland Galway and his own work can be found on his website here http://terrencemcdonough.ie/

Dr Orla Nic Suibhne of UCD  is carrying out research on Sustainable Energy Communities in Erris County Mayo and for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.