Thousands gathered across Ireland to demand the United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP30 (currently taking place in Belém, Brazil) takes decisive action. The Dublin rally was the main event, billed as the National Climate Demonstration, and organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (SCCC). Attendees included the Green Party, with party leader and Dublin West TD Roderic O’Gorman leading their bloc. After referencing the importance of those at COP30 committing to further meaningful action, he said:
It’s about the global situation, but it’s also about climate action here in Ireland. Making people’s homes warmer, making their energy cheaper, giving their energy cheaper, giving their energy to the global economy.
Calls to retrofit homes a win for all expect polluters
This echoed the call from the SCCC themselves, one of 6 demands for “fast, fair and funded climate action” which they recently announced. Their emphasis on housing’s role stated:
Everyone in Ireland deserves a warm, well-insulated home. This is critical for better health and wellbeing, lower energy bills, as well as climate resilience. Ensuring everyone can access retrofitting programmes and clean, affordable heating must be a national priority.
We can get there by investing in state-led retrofitting programmes that target the coldest homes first, and ramping up rollout of heat pumps, district heating and nationwide solar PV initiatives. At a minimum, all social housing should be retrofitted by 2030 and minimum energy efficiency standards introduced for rental properties.
This sort of policy represents a win in almost every way imaginable: for the climate, through lower energy usage and thus less pollution; for the health service through fewer people becoming ill from living in miserable, damp homes; for the economy via all the jobs created and the upskilling involved; and for basically every human in Ireland (and whatever non-humans animals they cohabit with) in terms of lower energy costs and a more pleasant home environment.
Of course, it doesn’t benefit energy companies when they lose out on inflated bills to heat poorly insulated homes, and it undermines the neoliberal notion that the state can never do anything useful.
Data centres melting the planet and killing the climate
Other demands include a call to “End Fossil Fuels Now – Power People, Not Polluters” and a request for “Clean Energy for People, Not Data Centres and Big Tech”. Ireland remains a major hub for data centres due to its role as a tax haven for mainly US corporations to operate from. Friends of the Earth – who were present at the Dublin rally – also call for action on this, pointing out that:
Data centres now use more than 20% of the nation’s total electricity – that’s more electricity than all the urban homes in the country combined and twice as much as all rural households.
They continue:
…data centres are using up vital renewable energy resources that should be used to serve human wellbeing. We need to prioritise renewable energy for purposes such as powering our homes and keeping the lights on in our hospitals and schools.
It’s well known that Ireland’s debasement before US interests cheats the world’s public realm out of tax via a race to the bottom, and helps to fund Zionist genocide through mass purchase of electronic components by giant tech corporations based here. Now we know it wrecks the climate and hoovers up energy needed elsewhere too.
In Belfast a smaller rally took place in Writer’s Square, with members of the Green Party in Northern Ireland present, alongside youth movement Fridays for Future Northern Ireland. Among the speakers was Professor John Barry of Queen’s University Belfast, who called on polluters to:
Keep the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole and the frack in the crack!
COP30 rammed to the gills with fossil fuel lobbyists
All those involved, along with similar protests across the globe will be hoping their calls are heeded by those at COP30. The fact they still refer to it as climate change in the event’s title is enough to set off alarm bells, bringing to mind George Monbiot’s remark in which he said:
It’s climate breakdown. Calling it climate change is like calling an invading army unwanted visitors.
More worrying still is the deluge of lobbyists that have once again descended on the conference. Campaign group Kick Big Polluters Out has determined that a shocking:
…1600 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the COP30 climate talks…
This means that those intent on wrecking the planet:
…significantly outnumber almost every country delegation at COP30 – with only host country Brazil (3805), sending more people.
It seems the same logic that applies to upgrading the Irish house applies to fixing the environment that houses us all, with the perverse logic of capital overriding basic common sense policies. When the voice of polluters gets free reign, it’s perhaps best to give the final word to those who are so often shut out of the conversation, like Tom BK Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network:
It is unethical to give access to these Big Polluters that continue a road of ecocide, terracide and genocide against Mother Earth, Father Sky, nature and humanity. It is immoral to call this the Indigenous Peoples COP when local Indigenous Peoples are forced to lift their voices to gain entry when the fossil fuel lobbyists can freely waltz in with no struggle.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.