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Ireland and the Climate Crisis PDF

321 Pages·2020·3.619 MB·English
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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN MEDIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION Ireland and the Climate Crisis Edited by David Robbins · Diarmuid Torney · Pat Brereton Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication Series Editors Anders Hansen School of Media, Communication and Sociology University of Leicester Leicester, UK Steve Depoe McMicken College of Arts and Sciences University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH, USA Drawing on both leading and emerging scholars of environmental communication, the Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication Series features books on the key roles of media and com- munication processes in relation to a broad range of global as well as national/local environmental issues, crises and disasters. Characteristic of the cross-disciplinary nature of environmental communication, the books showcase a broad variety of theories, methods and perspectives for the study of media and communication processes regarding the environment. Common to these is the endeavour to describe, analyse, understand and explain the centrality of media and communication processes to public and political action on the environment. Advisory Board Stuart Allan, Cardiff University, UK Alison Anderson, Plymouth University, UK Anabela Carvalho, Universidade do Minho, Portugal Robert Cox, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Geoffrey Craig, University of Kent, UK Julie Doyle, University of Brighton, UK Shiv Ganesh, Massey University, New Zealand Libby Lester, University of Tasmania, Australia Laura Lindenfeld, University of Maine, USA Pieter Maeseele, University of Antwerp, Belgium Chris Russill, Carleton University, Canada Joe Smith, The Open University, UK More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14612 David Robbins • Diarmuid Torney Pat Brereton Editors Ireland and the Climate Crisis Editors David Robbins Diarmuid Torney School of Communications School of Law and Government Dublin City University Dublin City University Dublin, Ireland Dublin, Ireland Pat Brereton School of Communications Dublin City University Dublin, Ireland Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication ISBN 978-3-030-47586-4 ISBN 978-3-030-47587-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47587-1 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Dave G Kelly / gettyimages Cover design: eStudioCalamar This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland F oreword The role of countries like Ireland in addressing climate change is too often overlooked. Climate change, as everyone knows, is the great challenge of our generation. Yet it is too often framed as a problem for the world’s larg- est countries to sort out. After all, they have contributed most to the problem and their leaders often have much to say on the topic at G7 meet- ings. The world’s attention is rightly focused at the present moment on responding to the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, but responding to climate change and setting the world on course for a rebalanced rela- tionship to nature is our most pressing challenge. A collective response to a global problem requires active leadership by all countries. Ireland is important as a proud member of the European Union, which continues to play an indispensable leadership role, and given its remarkable soft power on the international stage, building on nearly a century of diplomacy and drawing on deep wells of goodwill from its decades as a non-aligned party and as a leader in development coopera- tion. Beyond these formidable assets, Ireland has an inspiring story to tell about its own recent experience of climate action. My friend and colleague Mary Robinson said recently, “Feeling a com- plete inability to do anything—‘This is too big for me, I give up’—that’s no use to anybody”. She was talking about how individuals and societies should react to the grim daily news about climate change, but I think this also applies to countries. No one country can avoid its responsibility by saying that its individual contribution to the problem is too small. Ireland, v vi FOREWORD to its credit, is showing that it realises the role it can play goes far beyond its greenhouse gas emissions. In the last few years, Ireland has moved from its self-declared status as a “laggard” to a point where it is on the cusp of a new era of climate ambi- tion. The turning point may have been in its innovative Citizens’ Assembly, which in 2017 considered the question “How the State can make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change” and in the process revealed a stunning consensus in favour of measures that politicians had long thought would be unpalatable to the electorate. One of the most notable recommenda- tions of the Citizens’ Assembly was a far-reaching pledge to place climate change at the centre of policymaking in Ireland. This high-level recom- mendation was translated by a special parliamentary committee on climate action into a radical proposal to overhaul Ireland’s 2015 climate law. The Citizens’ Assembly, as a model of deliberative democracy, may be one of Ireland’s most consequential gifts to the world on climate change (though not just on climate) so far. I have the honour of being co-p resident of France’s Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat, a citizens’ assembly on climate change inspired by the Irish experience, and I have been deeply moved to see the how its 150 participants have risen to the task, with seri- ousness and great dedication, of determining how their country should address this daunting challenge. Yet Ireland’s biggest contribution may be still to come. If Ireland tran- sitions to a net-zero economy, it will mean tackling its emissions from agriculture and transport. Ireland is not unique in struggling to transform these sectors, but they are more dominant in Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions profile than in other countries. It will therefore have to put spe- cial effort into figuring out how, as a small, open, export-oriented country, it can develop a climate-friendly agriculture and food sector and how to reverse the legacy of decades of car-based urban planning. The context in which Ireland—and the world—face these challenges has been upended in recent months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some will seek to use this as an opportunity to slow progress towards building a more sustainable future, and government bandwidth for engaging on cli- mate policies may be constrained. But climate change is a foreseeable global crisis which, like COVID-19, will have far-reaching and indiscrimi- nate society-wide impacts. These impacts will not be reversible. Governments must learn from the current situation that they have a responsibility to manage this risk. FOREWORD vii I am confident that Ireland can rise to these challenges. And when it does, it will provide a good-news story to inspire other countries facing similar challenges of their own. This, beyond the actual tonnes of green- house gases abated, could be Ireland’s most decisive act towards the implementation of the Paris Agreement. CEO, European Climate Foundation Paris, France May 2020 Laurence Tubiana A cknowledgements The editors wish to acknowledge support from the book publication and the workshop support schemes run by the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Dublin City University. We also thank Professor Charlotte Burns of Sheffield University, and Professor Neil Carter of York University, for their advice in shaping the book. We thank the students of the MSc in Climate Change: Policy, Media and Society at DCU for their engagement and feedback in developing the book proposal. We are grateful to Conor McNally, a graduate of the MSc in Climate Change programme, for his help in preparing the manuscript. Finally, we thank all the chapter authors for their contributions, and their patience. ix c ontents Section I Introduction and Context 1 Introduction 3 David Robbins, Diarmuid Torney, and Pat Brereton Climate Change in Ireland: Science, Impacts and Adaptation 15 John Sweeney Ireland’s Policy Response to Climate Change: An Historical Overview 37 Diarmuid Torney Section II Law and Policy 55 Climate Litigation, Politics and Policy Change: Lessons from Urgenda and Climate Case Ireland 57 Sadhbh O Neill and Edwin Alblas Climate Law in Ireland: EU and National Dimensions 73 Roderic O’Gorman The Party Politics of Climate Change in Ireland 91 Conor Little xi

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