People Before Profit Demands System Change Not Climate Change

Code Red for Humanity – UN Secretary General

So, science is confirming what we are all seeing happen in front of our own very eyes.  Governments paying lip service to Climate Emergency are being called out, but will this report make any difference to the constant Greenwashing we have seen and heard up to now?

Emissions have been at the top of the list for quite some time.  Throwing grants at Electric Cars may appease SIMI, and a few more bike lanes the Green Party, but the time for playing with the Planetary Crisis is now done, we need radical action to impose radical change.

“Thinking must change.”, says Una Dunphy Waterford PBP Representative “This week, we not only have the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report making urgent calls for action, but also a joint report from the EPA, Met Eireann and the Marine Institute, stating that our Greenhouse Gases have hit new heights.  None of this is good news, but how many warnings do we need?  We must urgently recognise what has to be achieved, and see through all the greenwashing by successive Governments, that has led us a merry dance.”

It is over a year since Climate Case took the Irish Government to the EU Court, challenging their useless Climate Action policy, and won!  What has been achieved since?

Multiple reports have damned the Irish Government on its inaction, in some cases, such as Agri/Dairy sectors increasing Carbon Footprints.  This is locally lauded for creating jobs in Dairy Production, when more sustainable jobs could be created if we adopted a different approach, such as sustainable transport, circular economy farming, building public housing, and retrofitting the built environment.

Una Dunphy says “We have read report after report telling us that Government is going in the wrong direction.  We have called them out every time. Yet still, here we are, failing to respond, obvious solutions rejected as radical, when they are exactly what is required.  PBP have been on the right side of this constantly.

Increasing Dairy in the South East is wrong and contrary to all climate emergency advice, both from emissions and agricultural pollution; we must reduce livestock farming.  We don’t all need to become vegan overnight, but we have to become more plant based.  The speed at which this has to happen is becoming more urgent due to our Government’s inaction.”