By Susan Gately – 21 February, 2015
Government should strengthen Climate Action Bill in line with recommendations of the Joint Committee of the Environment.
Individuals and communities have a key role to play in promoting climate justice according to Dr Lorna Gold Head of Policy and Advocacy at Trócaire.
In an interview following a seminar in Dublin on climate justice and policy coherence, Dr Gold said people had to allow themselves to become aware of an uncomfortable truth.
“The truth is this: the world’s carbon budget (the safe level of CO2 in the atmosphere) is finite. At current rates that global budget will be used up by 2035 – just 30 years away,” she told CatholicIreland.
“Each of us uses up carbon every time we burn fossil fuels. A person in Ireland uses 88 times the amount of C02 as someone in Ethiopia. The more we continue to use, the less they will have – and therefore the less space to increase their level of development.”
