Climate on the media stage

 

The climate crisis also manifests itself as a communications crisis. And as we enter a new political cycle there is a real fear that action here in Ireland will slow down. As my former colleague John Gormley wryly observed at a conference yesterday politicians of every hue are saying to us “We’re all green now.” As it happens, I remember the late Taoiseach Charlie Haughey saying to me over thirty years ago “I’m a bit of a green myself, as he waxed lyrical about providing a whale sanctuary off the Irish coast.

 

The conference was “Climate Action and a New Political Cycle: media's role in a time of change” and took place in Virgin TV’s Ballymount studios near the Red Cow Interchange. The event was held by Coimisiún na Meán as part of teh Sustainable Media Ireland initiative and reflects their role in developing and regulating a thriving, diverse, creative, safe and trusted media landscape. One way of doing that is to tease out the challenging issues that the media must communicate. It was a wet January day, but I took to the bike and passed a lot of stalled car traffic on my way out there, though I did end up with saturated shoes.

 

Mary Robinson, our former president gave a keynote, and she was wonderful. She spoke about the challenges for democracy in an age of disinformation, the importance of the European Union’s Digital Service Act, and her new role as a ‘Guardian of the Planetary Boundaries’. That last title is brilliant and refers to her new role with a spin-off from the Potsdam Institute for climate research who have done excellent work on this topic.

I also spoke, on a panel with Caroline O'Doherty Environment correspondent with the Irish Independent; Shannen Healy, a content creator who you can find as @_greengal on TikTok and Instagram, and Dr. Paul Dean, from University College Cork. The audience was drawn from media outlets across Ireland. Shannen spoke knowledgeable about communicating climate in bite-sized chunks that make a difference in our everyday lives. Her short reel on how to bleed a radiator has eleven million views, so she must be doing something right! She also spoke about the problems of fast fashion, and communicating with Generation Rent. She wore a lovely top that she had rented for the day, which showed us all that there are alternatives to buying new stuff for a special occasion. Caroline spoke of the algorithmic push-back against climate stories, which can require editorial intervention to ensure they get the prominence they deserve. Paul spoke described greenhouse gas emissions as pollutant, which allows us more readily to understand their impact. Disclaimer: Paul undertook some excellent work on date centres that I commissioned in my time as a Member of the European Parliament.

 

My contribution singled out the good works undertaken by journalists like Caroline, but also TheJournal's monthly 'Temperature Check' and other outlets who focus on climate work. I spoke about the importance of getting climate off the Environment page and into every section of news. The good work undertaken by my local football team Bohemians deserves more coverage, but any piece about air travel should mention climate. I expressed my concern about the Business Post fast becoming a mouthpiece for Ryanair and Dublin Airport’s expansion plans. 

 

Shifting the Overton window on climate is crucial, and I spoke about how discussions of de-growth economics strike fear into the eyes of economics commentators, but perhaps a discussion of ‘sufficiency’ can get more traction. I also made a plea for Europe to figure more in our discussions and commentary as most climate legislation kicks off in Brussels. All in all it was a good discussion, and Mary Robinson’s remarks were reported, which may serve to keep climate action in the news, a good result!

Words in remembrance of Siobhán Cuffe Wallace, 23rd October 2024

On a lovely sunny Autumn day in 2024 we gathered on Baggot Street for the unveiling of a plaque on one of the new public benches on Baggot Street that Siobhán and the Pembroke Road Association had fought hard to get installed. Sitting on the bench are her husband Dr. Pat Wallace and Susan McCarrick of the Pembroke Road Association. As we remembered her this is what I had to say:

 

A Ard Mheara, Brian, Mick, Pat, Go raibh mile maith agaibh as a bheith anseo inniu. Tá muid anseo inniu chun cuimhneamh ar mo dheirfiúr Siobhan. Bheadh ​​Siobhan an-bhródúil asaibh. 

I’ve started with a few words of Irish as Siobhán was learning the language in recent years, yet another side to her interests. 

Thank you all for making today happen. Lord Mayor, James, thank you for making the time to be here, we are honoured by your presence. Pat, thank you for your words. You and I are certainly used to public speaking, but a day like this can be tough. Thanks to Brian Hanney from Dublin City Council for your hard work in improving the the city, to Mick Quinn for your work in the background. Thanks to everyone gathered here this morning in her memory.

Today is a day to remember a kind and loving sister, aunt, wife, an artist, a campaigner, a gaeilgeoir in the making, a friend. Over the last six months through you I’ve learnt so much more about the many sides to Siobhán that I hadn’t known before and that is a real privilege.

Siobhán had a passion for people, for the  city and for the neighbourhood and community of Baggotonia. I will always be grateful for her kindness and love for our children. For taking time to encourage our sons’ interests. She loved all her nieces and nephews dearly, she was interested in their lives, and talked often about their plans and achievements. As we will all remember, Siobhán was an amazing hostess. She served incredible food to all comers as guests in Pembroke Lane.

I want to go back though, half a century to a time when the UCD School of architecture was on Earlsfort Terrace, twenty minutes’ walk from here, when a young woman, my sister Siobhán brought her baby brother on a walk through town, into Stephen’s Green, past the sculpture and the fountains, through the archway and down Grafton Street into Bewley’s cafe for tea and a bun. That’s where she introduced me to the Harry Clarke windows, and the buzz of that clattery cafe that gave me an interest and an enthusiasm for this city, something that we shared ever since.

Ten years later she co-founded with the late Kirsten Douglas the Mansion House Arts and Crafts Fair that was held in the Round Room on Dawson Street for many years. It was a winter boost in sales for craftworkers, a Christmas job for me and my student friends as we worked there in our student years, some dressed up as giant Christmas presents, and sent to walk up and down Grafton Street to publicise the Arts and Crafts Fair.

In 1990 I was studying in Venice, and Siobhán came to visit with her new fellah, and he certainly seemed to have a good feel for the history of that city, which impressed me. A few years later when Jean Kennedy Smith took up office as US Ambassador to Ireland Siobhán and Pat acted as her friend and mentor as she worked to deliver a peace process that changed the face of this shared island.

In the late 1990s she acquired a 15th century Gaelic Tower House beside the Burren and gave it a new lease of life that continued its transformation into an exquisite dwelling place in Co. Clare.
In recent years she put her energy into many causes and campaigns. She gave me great counsel and support in my political campaigns over the years. She liked to seek out people, not parties, and I certainly know of politicians from at least three political parties, often ideologically opposed whose candidates she campaigned for over the years. More importantly, she fought to protect her wonderful neighbourhood from the excesses of post Celtic Tiger greed.  As Chair of the Pembroke Residents Association she spoke out against the utterly shocking unauthorised demolition of the O’Rahilly House on Herbert Park.  She rightfully objected to the first iteration of the Bus Connects plan which would have removed heritage railings and trees from Pembroke Road.

She was also a campaigner for women, she sought reforms in the Catholic Church to give women a stronger voice, and helped ensure that the women in our family history were remembered.
She would have been pleased to see Mary Lavin recently commemorated in the naming of the refurbished Park at the Grand Canal, and hear that a bookshop will be provided in the new development. I suspect the amazing women who ran Parson’s bookshop a stone’s throw from here would also have been pleased. I was fortunate to have known Mary King who worked there.

We don’t have a television, so I keep forgetting that Siobhán, Pat and the dogs appeared regularly on Gogglebox. It was lovely to see tributes from her Gogglebox fans on the RIP.ie condolences page.
On a more serious note, Siobhán was a tenacious campaigner. She would have been quick to point out the unfinished business of protecting our city. She worked to find a civic use for the old Baggot Street Hospital, and many of you here today now have to continue her work to bring it back into use again as a keystone building in the heart of the city.

In remembering her, Patricia Hunt of the Hunt family in Limerick said “Siobhán was a wonderful people person, an amazing cook, artist, conservationist, author, lover of Ireland and animals - some of her extraordinary gifts.“ Siobhán we are so proud of you, we miss you greatly, and we will remember your time on this fragile earth with much happiness and joy.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dilis

Car-free Day Brussels-style

A car-free Chaussée de Waterloo on 22 September 2024

Car-free Day, 2024. I'm in Brussels, and for the first time I'm witnessing what a real car-free day looks like in a major city. 

Brussels gets it right. From 9:30 am till 7 pm, Private cars are not allowed drive on city streets in the entire Brussels Region, including the City of Brussels. The equivalent in Dublin would be taking the full city council area between Ballymun and Booterstown, and saying cars aren't allowed drive there for one day a year. Unthinkable? It depends on the extent of our ambition, but in Brussels it happens, and it works. And that city is certainly no car-free paradise, though they have introduced a low-emission zone, and you can even get a free public transport bonus of up to €1,050 if you scrap an older polluting car.  However on car-free Sunday families, older people, skaters, cyclists, skateboarders and walkers make the streets their own. 

The weather today was overcast today , but by Irish standards it was a balmy 20°C and people were enjoying the late September warmth as they walked down the centre of what are normally busy arterial roads, or stopped to browse at food stalls and flea-markets set-up in streets that are normally packed full of cars.

For me the silence, the clean air and the sight of children taking over the road was a revelation. It showed me that even in the heart of a metropolitan region it is possible on one day a year to tackle the domination of car traffic and emissions. "But what about carers, what about emergencies?" I hear you say. Well, public transport continues to run, and is more dependable, and I suspect much faster when trams and buses aren't stuck behind rows of cars in traffic. And yes, taxis are allowed, as well as emergency service vehicles, and I did see the occasional car moving slowly along calm and quiet streets. The city's website says that "only urgent services, vehicles of public interest and persons with a pass can circulate in the zones where car traffic is forbidden" so it is clear that sensible exemptions are allowed.

Back in Dublin the two-hundred metre long stretch of Customs House Quay between Butt Bridge and Matt Talbot Bridge will be car-free. Two cheers I guess. Could we be more ambitious? Of course we could, but I suspect there just isn't the political will to deliver. It does make for a remarkable contrast. In Brussels an area measuring five kilometres square will be without cars, that's ambition made real. "But the public transport!" Sure, Brussels has a good offering for those who travel by bus, tram and train. Services continue to improve, and as it happens the new number 10 tram route was inaugurated yesterday by the King. 

A dog enjoying the car-free Chaussée de Waterloo on 22 September 2024

 

We can, and should raise our ambition and even consider taking cars out of the section between the North Circular and South Circular Roads in Dublin's inner city for ten hours on just on one day a year. Years ago I remember suggesting to the then City Manager Owen Keegan that we should do more, but his response was that we needed to be more ambitious for more car-free areas and better public transport 365 days a year, not just for one day, and he had a point. However, having experienced the transformative change that Brussels undergoes once a year it shows what could be done if the will was there. The kids that I saw on the streets today were experiencing a freedom that has been unimaginable for generations of Irish children. They even had a 'Kidical Mass' event; as they often do, a huge bike-ride specially for for children in the Bois de la Cambre, the equivalent of the Phoenix park in Dublin. Over the years children have lost much of their independent spatial mobility, and the car-free day allows them, albeit briefly to regain some of that lost freedom.

In Belgium they have strong Regional and Local Government that makes it easier for these type of happenings to be proposed and implemented. I can't imagine Transport Infrastructure Ireland or the National Transport Authority making such a proposal, and we have devolved transport and mobility issues to too many agencies over the years. We need to empower local government with the powers to more easily propose and implement these type of imaginative events. Putting in place a directly-elected mayor for Dublin would be a step towards achieving this. 

A Belgium supermarket celebrates car-free day

Here in Belgium the annual Car-Free Day has been normalised, and even my local Carrefour (The Tesco equivalent) offers you a free gift to mark the day. The event is supported by people in all walks of life, and even though I'm not a great fan of monarchs, it was interesting that the Belgian King Philippe and his 16-year-old daughter took to their bikes in Mechelen on the occasion of Car-Free Sunday, without a trace of high-viz in sight. If you search for the #JournéeSansVoiture hashtag you'll get a feel for how the car-free day has panned out across Belgium. 

 Election Posters on display in Ixelles, Belgium

 

I met a pal for a drink on the place Fernand Cocq in the centre of Ixelles. Local elections will be held on 13th October, and instead of posters taking over the streets there are selected squares where the municipality erects boards for political parties to paste up posters with their candidates' photos and a few words. It seems like a decent alternative to plastering posters on every lamp-post as we do in Ireland. Interestingly the large posters are protected with a layer of chicken wire to deter graffiti artists from leaving their mark.

Today marks exactly twenty years since I first took to blogging my journey in politics. Back then I was similarly upset that we weren't making the most of European Mobility Week in Dublin. I might say 'plus ça change' but actually there have been many positive changes in my home city. Even though cars have got larger, road deaths have halved, but perhaps this has been at the expense of a loss of our outdoor freedom. In Brussels 'Heroes for Zeroes' and other groups are doing good work to tackle the carnage on the roads. The European Transport Safety Council work lobbies hard for legislative change to make our roads safer. We certainly need to restrict the growth in supersized cars that we've witnessed in recent years. Perhaps in twenty years time we'll have a more ambitious car-free Day in Dublin, who knows? Ultimately it depends on political will. On va voir.

Climate, justice, democracy

My words at the Green Party pre-election convention at the RDS, 20th April 2024

I want to talk about climate,  I want to talk about justice, and I want to talk about democracy.

We know what we want to achieve on all three of these, but these are challenging times, and there are stormy waters ahead. Five years ago, the wind was behind us. Today, our actions demand competent leadership and well-trained crew for the strong winds and rough seas lie ahead.

The good news on climate is that in Europe we’ve agreed the Fit for 55 Package, we’re on course to reduce emissions in the years ahead. The European Green Deal survived Brexit, Covid and war in Ukraine and the Middle East. It would not have happened without the Greens in Europe, and the Greens in Government here, and in other countries.

The bad news is that we need to do much more in the years ahead, and we don’t have the critical mass of political support to achieve this. We need at least a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in Europe over the next fifteen years. We cannot slow down or stall our climate action. The far-right are in denial, and the centre right are unwilling to pick up the tab. Not only that, but the centre also-right produced a kill list of climate laws that they did not want to see passed in the European parliament. This cannot be allowed to happen. There is the danger that the window of opportunity in the 2020s will be lost, and that we will repeat the mistake of fiscal austerity from the financial crisis fifteen years ago. The danger now is that it will be a social and environmental crisis, exposing the least-well off to high energy costs, and weather extremes due to climate change in future years. The time to invest is now, and we must not cripple ourselves with fiscal rules into a failure to act.

Justice is at the heart of climate action. We cannot pass the burden of climate action onto the next generation. We must act now to protect our young people. Just yesterday outside Dáil Éireann I met with young climate activists. They are angry that we are not doing enough to help them. It is no wonder that they are turning to the courts to seek justice. Our climate plans must be fairer and faster if we are to avoid a polarised and prolonged battle in the courts. Of course, the European Court of Human Rights should not decide what we do on climate, but if governments fail to act with the speed and depth of response that is needed then I support them.

Democracy is a core value of the Irish people and the European Union. However, we must ensure that it is delivered at the most effective level. When I cycle down Parliament Street in Dublin I see three flags on top of our City Hall. One is Dublin, one is Ireland, and one is that of the European Union. Democracy must be delivered in all three. Ireland is an outlier when it comes to local democracy. It is outrageous that the plebiscite on whether Dublin should have a directly elected mayor has been postponed from being held on 7th June. If we believe in democracy, we should give local government in Ireland the powers and the leadership it deserves, that are the norm elsewhere in Europe. They should be the norms in Ireland too.

Democracy will be empowered by the green transition. Each additional year of dependency on fossil fuels is strengthening the hands of the oligarchs and dictators who supply us with our oil and gas. Every time we erect a wind turbine, or install a heat pump we reduce the power that these people wield. Throughout my work on the Greening Buildings law in Brussels I have said if we insulate homes we isolate Putin. This has never truer than today.

Democracy is under threat at a deeper level in Hungary, in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe. We must protect democratic values, and we must defend those who are under attack, in Ukraine and in Gaza. We must provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and we must come to the aid of humanity in Palestine.

I will work for a safer world where developing countries receive the support they need, and migrants no longer drown in the Mediterranean. I will continue to insist on support for Gaza and Ukraine.  I will ensure your voice is heard in Brussels. That is my promise to you, and to the people of Dublin for the next five years.