Ireland and the Climate Crisis

321 Pages·2020·3.619 MB·English

by  David Robbins, Diarmuid Torney, Pat Brereton

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