Dear John,
September has begun. And with it, a new season of climate campaigning kicks off. I’m excited! We’ve got a host of activities, events and actions lined up to ensure that the Government holds to its Programme for Government promises and delivers the faster and fairer climate action we so urgently need. And crucially that it passes the legislation required to make that action a legal requirement!
We saw the power of legislation to hold the Government to account in August when the Supreme Court struck down the Government’s hopelessly inadequate 2017 climate action plan because it didn’t comply with the provisions of the 2015 Climate Action Act. That 2015 law was the result of 8 years of campaigning by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.
Now, at our urging, the Government parties have promised to publish a new, stronger climate law within the first 100 days of their administration, by 5th October. We’ll be pushing them every step of the way to ensure they follow through. We’ll also be running a series of webinars to delve into these issues. First up is a webinar to examine that Supreme Court judgement from August - and what it means for climate action in Ireland.
Register for our webinar on the Supreme Court Judgement on Climate Case Ireland
This first webinar in our autumn series will take place on 9th September at 5pm Irish Time (please ignore the time zone on the registration page!)
We are delighted to be joined by Dr. Andrew Jackson on behalf of the Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) legal team for a unique opportunity to tease out the implications of this landmark judgement. We will also be joined by Sadhbh O’Neill, Stop Climate Chaos policy advisor, who helped to launch the climate case campaign in 2018 as FIE's campaign coordinator.
Did you know that Ireland is one of only two countries - the other one being the Netherlands to see a successful challenge to government climate policy in the courts? The fact that seven Supreme Court judges unanimously found that the 2017 National Mitigation Plan had serious shortcomings makes it all the more significant. The webinar will examine the groundbreaking nature of this case - and provide a fascinating insight into how it was successfully argued.
Register for our Webinar on Climate Case Ireland - and what it means for Irish Climate Action
This first webinar on the Climate Case will be followed by a second webinar about the new Climate Law on 22nd September at 5pm. Here we’ll explore what we want in the new Climate Law - and look at how we’ll campaign to get it. Speakers will include Dr. Diarmuid Torney of DCU who has researched the Irish climate law extensively over the past few years. We’ll be in touch with more details on this second webinar nearer the time. In the meantime, we hope to see you on September 9th!
Register for our webinar on 9th September
In hope as we begin a new season of campaigning.
Áine
Activism Support Coordinator
Stop Climate Chaos
P.S. The webinar on 9th September will take place at 5pm Irish Time. Please ignore any Action Network messages that may indicate a different time. We use an external Action Network platform to host our events and they are currently undergoing some technical difficulties with country time zones.
