By Jack O’Donovan Trá A coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental NGOs has strongly criticised the government for failing to publish key legislation that would protect Irish seas and help tackle the twin climate and biodiversity crises. Presenting a petition of 11,758 signatures from Ireland to Minister of State for Nature, Read more…
21 November 2023 By Fintan Kelly and Ciaran Brennan There has been a lot of noise around the Nature Restoration Law, most of it coming from expected quarters. Urging MEPs to oppose the law which was agreed earlier this month following negotiations between the EU Parliament, Commission and Council, the Read more…
By Rosalind Skillen The theme for the inaugural Mary Robinson Conference was ‘Communities Creating Change’. Hosted in Ballina Arts Centre, the conference brought together voices from all sectors of academia and society to share climate experiences and discuss local pathways for a sustainable future. Over the course of the two Read more…
By Rosalind Skillen Talking about adaptation just before COP27 last year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said “it’s time for a global climate adaptation overhaul that puts aside excuses and picks up the toolbox to fix the problems.” He called for a “global surge in adaptation efforts”, especially further adaptation financing Read more…
“We support the principles and ambition of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and will develop comprehensive legislation for the identification, designation, and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Irish territorial waters” This is the Irish Government’s own commitment for MPAs, stated in its ‘Our Shared Future’ programme outlining its governmental Read more…
Ireland is home to a newly designated ‘Hope Spot’ off the Greater Skellig Coast in an area noted to have high conservation value for biodiversity. Hope Spots are scientifically identified as critical to the health of the ocean and designated by the global marine conservation movement Mission Blue. The Greater Read more…
By Pádraic Fogarty, Campaign Officer with the Irish Wildlife Trust When the gavel went down at the end of COP21 in Paris in November 2015 there was a moment of great relief and jubilation. The Paris Agreement had decided that global temperatures should not be allowed to rise above 1.5 Read more…
Four out of five want additional protection for Irish coastal waters and oceans. There is strong support for more legal protection for Irish waters according to a coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental non-governmental organisations and networks. The Fair Seas Campaign, which seeks to protect, conserve and restore Ireland’s Read more…
You may recall the plea ‘to keep 1.5 alive’ from last years COP26. This 1.5 goal refers to the target of keeping the earth’s warming below a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees, and in line with the 2016 Paris Agreement. If ‘1.5’ was the global goal around which international communities Read more…
Following advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the EU Commission has finally closed 87 sensitive marine areas in EU waters to bottom fishing. The closed areas amount to 16,000 km2 of EU waters, of which nearly 9,000 km2 are within the Irish Exclusive Economic Read more…
