THE Limerick COP26 coalition will host a protest to highlight climate change at 12pm this Saturday, November 6 at Bedford Row.
The event will feature representatives from local climate action groups who will speak about local environmental issues such as Shannon LNG, the Irish Cement Mungret plant, and proposed new data centres. Music and performative art will also feature at the event.
This week is the first of the two-week long COP26 Conference being held in Glasgow, where United Nations world leaders will meet to discuss solutions and commitments to preventing runaway climate change.
Across Ireland, a COP26 Coalition including Unite the Union, Teachers Union of Ireland, Union of Students in Ireland, People Before Profit, Safety before LNG, Not Here Not Anywhere, Futureproof Clare, and Limerick Against Pollution and others has been formed with an aim of raising public awareness of the COP26 Conference.
This coalition has organised demonstrations nationwide this Saturday to highlight radical and crucial demands which are needed to limit global temperature increases to below 1.5C through delivering real and just solutions for people and the planet.
Vast swathes of Limerick will be underwater by the end of the decade unless serious climate action is taken, according to a map produced by Coastal Central.
King John’s Castle, parts of King’s Island, Corbally, Thomondgate and Dooradoyle all face flooding according to the map, along with large parts of Adare and coastal towns such as Foynes if the current trajectory of emissions continues.
Limerick People Before Profit spokesperson Cian Prendiville said the map highlights the need for urgent action at the COP26 conference “to tackle the big business polluters destroying our climate”.
The former Councillor for Limerick City North said the findings “highlight the need for a large turnout at the climate justice marches in Limerick and across the world this Saturday to demand serious climate action”.
The COP26 Coalition are calling on the Irish Government to invest in Green Jobs, which would guarantee retraining for people whose jobs are affected by climate action, coupled with the creation of new jobs in renewable energy, home retrofitting, afforestation and re-wetting of the bogs.
The group also demands investment in free, frequent and green public transport, and for a stop to the proliferation of data centres “as building more power and water-hungry data centres in Ireland is incompatible with meeting our climate targets”.
In addition, the coalition demands an investment ban in new fossil fuel infrastructure, including LNG terminals, as well as investment in sustainable agriculture.
Mr Prendiville added: “This week sees world leaders gather for their 26th global conference to discuss climate change. That’s over a quarter of a century of a lot of talk and very little action. We cannot leave them to continue to fiddle while our planet burns – we need people power to demand serious action on climate action.
“We need a Green New Deal, with socialist policies, to tackle climate change and improve peoples quality of life at the same time. To do that, we need to take serious socialist policies previously dismissed as unworkable, such as free public transport, rapid insulating and retrofitting of homes and mass building of carbon-neutral public housing. Most importantly, we need to build a mass climate movement, demanding serious action to tackle big business polluters.”
