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OVER FOUR THOUSAND people took to the streets of Dublin today to protest against climate change and demand an end to fossil fuels.
People travelled from across the country to partake in the protest, organised by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition and timed to the midpoint of the COP31 UN climate talks in Türkiye.
“People aren’t marching today for another round of climate promises,” Deirdre Duffy, CEO of Friends of the Earth, said. “They’re marching because they can’t afford the bus fare or their heating bill and they know the two are connected.”
Protesters’ specific demands included a ban on LNG terminals (liquified natural gas), as well as the publication of the 2026 Climate Action Plan, which has been delayed.
Earlier this year, the Government’s planned LNG terminal was slammed for being “fundamentally incompatible” with climate policy.
Speakers at the protest also called for lower energy bills, affordable public transport, and for the WHO to declare the climate crisis a public health emergency.
Laura Quinn a Business Studies student said: “We are marching because climate action cannot be treated as a separate issue from the economic and social challenges facing young people in Ireland.
“A fossil-free future is not simply an environmental ambition; it is an investment in our health, our economic resilience and our long-term quality of life.”
Jennie Stephens, co-convenor of The Climate Justice Universities Union also said that educational institutions and universities must do more to “resist climate obstruction and corporate capture”.
Speaking from COP31 in Antalya, Seán McLoughlin of Christian Aid Ireland, said that “the absence of Irish leadership” when it comes to climate action has not gone unnoticed.
“These are the very same leaders who have dragged their heels on climate action, yet are now leading the EU delegation at the climate negotiations.”
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