SHELL GAMES
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 25 May 2022
“CONTRARY TO Shell’s public expressions around Net Zero, they are not winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract much more”, so says Caroline Dennett, a senior safety consultant who publicly ended an eleven year relationship with the company this week. In a video posted on Linkedin that calls upon 1,400… Read more »
DONAL SKEHAN MOTORS ON
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 14 October 2021
UBIQUITOUS TELLY chef Donal Skehan is the latest celeb promising to save the planet by er, promoting a Land Rover. Fans of Goldhawk will already be familiar with well known faces like Brian O’Driscoll, Diarmuid Gavin and Kathryn Thomas making the same contribution to virtual sustainability in recent weeks but Skehan has emerged as a… Read more »
THE GAS MEN
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 23 September 2021
THE SQUEEZE on gas prices could hardly come at a more inconvenient moment as governments across Europe face into a difficult political winter. Energy minister Éamon Ryan has promised budget interventions to mitigate what he says is a “significant but hopefully short-term problem,” and the issue underlines the increasing uncertainty of reliance on fossil fuels…. Read more »
TAISCE TROUBLES
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 14 May 2021
AMONG THE greatest political slights of hand in operation today is to watch TDs blame environmentalism for decades of structural neglect in that place called “rural Ireland.” Witness how successive governments have baulked at their responsibility around peat harvesting. Decisions that should have been taken long ago, new creative thinking, forward planning, all this was… Read more »
REIT’S MOVING IN ON RENEWABLES?
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 10 May 2021
IF TRUTH is often said to be the first causality of war, language is the battlefield on which the climate debate is most sharply contested. Polluters recognised this early on, and many industries have, over decades, expended billions in moulding an agenda to protect business as usual. While scepticism continues to linger among agriculture and… Read more »
BLAZE OF IGNORANCE
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 26 April 2021
WITH GRIM predictability the first dry spell of the year has seen several of what are erroneously labelled “wildfires” rampage with devastation. The price, if one can be calculated, is significant. Killarney’s Chief Fire Officer, Andrew MacIlwraith, estimates that potentially one-third of the National Park in Kerry has been destroyed this weekend. Similar emergencies have… Read more »
RYAN OUT OF THE WOODS, FOR NOW
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 24 March 2021
HAS ÉAMON Ryan done enough to turn the page on a fractious first year in office? The decision to enter government with all manner of trouble since was justified on the basis of producing a credible Climate Bill. When legislation was first published in October, even Ryan’s remaining supporters expressed great disappointment, with the minister’s… Read more »
TURF GUFF
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 18 February 2021
WITH THE issue of turf cutting again resurfacing, it seems that political thinking too has been remarkably preserved over time. Guffaws surely echoed down Kildare Street this week when Barry Cowen told the Farming Independent that there “should be no cliff edge for people dependent on turf for fuel and I don’t expect there will”…. Read more »
GREENS FIND COMMON GROUND AT LAST
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 3 February 2021
GREEN PARTY members looking for work following the next election are sure to snapped by their old foes in the lobbying industry. The internal arguments put forward in favour the CETA deal are strikingly similar the to denialism that the Green’s have spent their careers campaigning against. Following a party meeting last month, councillor Una… Read more »
FITZGERALD’S FEARS
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 4 November 2020
WHAT AN INTRIGUING contest is forming around the final shape of the Climate Action Bill. Goldhawk watched with interest the Committee on Climate Action last week where Prof John Fitzgerald expressed some of his own concerns. The Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAG) warned that a proposed revamp of the body risks undermining… Read more »
THE LONG GRASS
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 1 September 2020
EFFORTS TO elevate Irish beef to a status alongside champagne, prosciutto and gorgonzola have run into contention. A Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) listing from the European Union has long been floated as a means of distinguishing Irish red meat in a crowded market. As well as securing a sort of intellectual property right for “Irish… Read more »
GREENS PROMISED MORE OF SAME
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 29 April 2020
GREEN PARTY members will find little encouragement in the response from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael this week. Answers to seventeen questions submitted as a precursor to party talks are evasive, duplicitous and what little commitment ceded, comes heavily overlaid in delaying tactics. The letter signed by Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin leaves scarce indication… Read more »
NO PAYOUT FOR POLLUTERS?
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 28 April 2020
TUCKED away in the Green Party’s list of demands for government formation is the argument that “supports for businesses that are in difficulty because of the Covid-19 crisis should not go to polluting industries and should target small and medium Irish enterprises.” CRH has already put itself in line for criticism in Britain for having… Read more »
GREEN GAS RED LINES
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 24 April 2020
SPEAKING at a press conference on Friday, Leo Varadkar described questions set out in the Green Party’s response to the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael framework document as “reasonable and relevant.” This is some distance from recent Blueshirt pronouncements when some Green Party members were branded as “nutters” by John Paul Phelan at an Irish… Read more »
TRINITY GREEN WEAK
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 26 February 2020
NATURE LOVERS rejoice at Trinity College where plans are underway to turn the historic front lawn into a “wild flower meadow”. No less than, “one of the most prominent areas in the capital” is to become a haven for bees and butteries as part of TCD’s “response to Ireland’s biodiversity crisis”. The proposals received ample… Read more »
WALSH VS KELLY
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 13 February 2020
Goldhawk was surprised to see Fine Gael’s Maria Walsh breaking ranks in the European Parliament on Wednesday. The Mayo MEP was one of three party members to row in behind an opposition motion highlighting that several projects listed for EU taxpayer funding are contrary to commitments on climate action. The motion underlines a sizeable list… Read more »
CREED’S CLIMATE CRIMINALS
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 7 February 2020
AGRICULTURE MINISTER Michael Creed has approved the appointment of Brian Rushe to the Teagasc Authority. The Kildare man was elected Deputy President of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) in December and was subsequently nominated for its seat on the board. 2019 was a fractious year in Irish agriculture and there were a number of tight… Read more »
FARMING FICTION
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 24 January 2020
NO LESS than “one of the foremost experts in the world on the important role of farming in the climate debate” was in Dublin this week as the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) seek to “rebalance the debate around climate action”. Dr Frank Mitloehner has gained notoriety for challenging policies seeking to limit to emissions from… Read more »
VARADKAR’S RURAL HEARTBEAT
Affairs, Beyond the Pale, Fowl Emissions, 23 January 2020
FINE GAEL LAUNCHED its election showcase for rural Ireland on Wednesday with Varadkar announcing that “agriculture in many ways is the heartbeat of the Fine Gael party particularly in rural constituencies”. A steady slew of stories about these communities on life support, however, has kept pulses racing within the party. When FG trumpeted its last… Read more »
BRUTON’S BOARD DIVERSITY
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 7 January 2020
THE DRAFT heads of government’s Climate Action Bill published Monday promise that “in so far as is practicable there will be gender balance on the Climate Change Advisory Council”. Just to be sure of feminist kudos, Richard Bruton’s department ensured to single out this ambition for prominence in the notes sent to journalists yesterday afternoon…. Read more »
IRISH TIMES SLIPPERY FISH
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, Media, 7 January 2020
HOW CURIOUS to see that aquaculture has found its champion in Stephen Collins at the Irish Times. The former political editor took a break from the usual diet of electoral analysis and Leinster House intrigue last week in order to advocate on behalf of beleaguered salmon farmers. No fish out of water, Collins was armed… Read more »
VLAD’S RECKLESS SCIENCE
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 6 November 2019
Joan Burton was not wrong on Tuesday when likening Leo Varadkar’s remarks about “the benefits” of climate change to something you would expect in “tweets from Donald Trump”. An Taisce, too, said that for a Taoiseach to talk “in terms of a “ledger” where there are more or less equal benefits and downsides to climate… Read more »
RED FLAG AGGRO
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 31 October 2019
The recent release of Environmental Protection Agency data for 2018, revealing spiralling agri emissions, seemed like an odd day to unveil a new campaign promoting the most emissions-intensive forms of agriculture. Warring farm groups and meat factories have declared a temporary truce and formed an uneasy alliance with such as the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA),… Read more »
OFFSHORE CLARITY
Affairs, Fowl Emissions, 30 October 2019
VISITORS to this week’s Atlantic Ireland Conference in Dublin may have received a noisy reception from Extinction Rebellion protests but there was still a high profile welcome for the fossil fuel industry. Sean Canney, Minister of State for Natural Resources was joined at the event by Philip Nugent, the new Assistant Secretary at the Department… Read more »
