On this week’s episode we spoke with Angela Deegan from the environmental group Not Here Not Anywhere
- Not Here Not Anywhereis a nationwide, grassroots, volunteer group campaigning to end fossil fuel exploration and the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure in Ireland. They advocate for a just transition to renewable energy systems both here and around the world. They are a non-partisan group and are not affiliated with any political party.
- An important part of their campaign is to raise awareness of the global fossil fuel industry and they are also actively working to ban the importation of fracked gas into Ireland through Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals.
- Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is natural gas that’s cooled to very low temperatures to change it to liquid form for shipping overseas by tanker.
- The biggest share of LNG imports to Europe is from the USA, where it is mostly extracted via the highly polluting practise of “fracking” – a process with such bad health implications that it was banned in Ireland in 2017.
- Natural Gas is a fossil fuel and using it worsens the climate crisis. But LNG in particular
involves cooling, transportation, regasification and methane leakage throughout its lifecycle, which result in it being much worse than Natural Gas in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, it is as bad as coal in that respect. - In order for Ireland to be energy secure, NHNA says it is critical that we transition away from fossil fuels. Any LNG projects would delay that energy transition, diverting resources from cleaner sustainable alternatives.
- Any energy security risks that Ireland might face are far outweighed by the risks of climate disruption caused by global warming.
- Through diversification of our indigenous renewable energy sources, along with investment in battery storage, green hydrogen generation, increased interconnection with Europe and demand management, Ireland can move away from the volatile fossil fuel markets.
- Not Here Not Anywhere has an Uplift E-Action whereby voters in the upcoming local elections can ask candidates to pledge to take specific actions, if elected, opposing the development of LNG terminals and calling for a moratorium on the development of new data centres.
- Find out more at notherenotanywhere.com and at my.uplift.ie/partnerships/not-here-not-anywhere
