LAST UPDATE | 11 Nov 2022

A DUBLIN PROTEST is demanding that the Irish government phases out fossil fuel subsidies and transitions to a ‘wellbeing economy’ as the threats posed by the climate crisis grow.

Campaigners are calling for specific actions to thwart climate change and protect the people who are most impacted, emphasising that action must happen urgently.

Students and groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future and Irish Doctors for the Environment gathered in Trinity’s Front Square and marched to the Dáil via Grafton Street, where they staged a sit-down protest.

The demonstration was planned to coincide with COP27, an international climate conference currently taking place in Egypt.

Speaking in the Dáil this week, TD Bríd Smith said protesters would carry clocks with them “to symbolise the fact that we’re running out of time”.

The major concern at this year’s COP is whether or not developed countries will take decisive action to provide ‘loss and damage’ support for developing countries to help those who are suffering the most from the crisis despite contributing some of the least to greenhouse gas emissions.

Today’s protest in Dublin is demanding financial commitments coming out of COP for people and areas most affected by the climate crisis. 

It is calling for Ireland to transition to an economic model that prioritises wellbeing and pilot ‘Doughnut Economics’, a framework for operating within ecological boundaries while providing for all human rights and needs.

Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

Campaigners want Ireland to exit the Energy Charter Treaty, phase out fossil fuel subsidies and sign up to a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The government should also support fishers and farmers in transitioning to sustainable fishing and agriculture; provide climate education for bureaucrats and education institutions; establish a climate mental health council and codify ecocide as a crime, according to the protesters.

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And ‘climate clocks’ that show how long the world has left to enact changes before the climate crisis causes human and ecological collapse should be displayed on landmark buildings in all Irish cities, they say.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that the impacts of climate change are already causing severe and widespread disruption to people’s lives.

The world has warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times and is on a trajectory to plough past 1.5 degrees, despite an agreement by countries in 2015 to aim to limit warming to that point.

Even with 1.5 degrees of global warming, the world “faces unavoidable multiple climate hazards” in the next 20 years, according to the IPCC.

Exceeding a 1.5 degree rise, even temporarily, would lead to “additional severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible”.