By Feargal O'Kane from Northern Ireland Environment Link
Published on 02 Nov 2007
The Climate Change Coalition, a group of environmental and development organisations, was officially launched on 22 October at an event in the long gallery in Stormont attended by over 100 people, including 17 MLAs.
Some of those present at the launch of the Climate Change Coalition.
The Climate Change Coalition, a group of environmental and development organisations, was officially launched on 22 October at an event in the long gallery in Stormont attended by over 100 people, including 17 MLAs.
Those attending heard how climate change is having a disproportionately negative impact on those in the developing world – and it is causing death and misery every day.
Northern Ireland may not suffer to the same extent from direct impacts – our climate will be slightly warmer and wetter, with greater unpredictability and storminess – but it will be impacted upon the social, economic and environmental impacts elsewhere in the world.
Keynote speaker Professor Neil Adger, a member of the IPCC which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore, said
"Global warming is unequivocal and the effects are detectable with a high degree of confidence. Anyone who says it isn’t happening is wrong, and you should question their motives.
"The uncertainty which we still have about how high the temperature will rise is not a result of scientific uncertainty but because we do not know to what extent we will all act to solve the problem – it is in our hands to determine what happens."
Deborah Doherty of Christian Aid commented:
"We estimate that 1 in 2 people of the population of Northern Ireland has some link or association with one or more of the 18 groups which make up the coalition. And therein lies its strength.
"Climate change is one of the biggest threats to development: it could undo decades of progress in fighting poverty and sustainable development programmes. The coalition recognises that the behaviour of people in Northern Ireland is, through climate change, having disproportionate negative impacts on those living in many parts of the developing world.
"By working together we hope that we can help people here recognise that individual and political action in Northern Ireland can make a difference both here and internationally."
Dr Dave Favis Mortlock said:
"While Northern Ireland may not suffer greatly from the direct impacts of climate change in the short term, the effects on the rest of the world will have obvious impacts on Northern Ireland.
"Northern Ireland can help lead the way in solving this problem, building on our experience as'the place that is successfully recovering from the Troubles'."
Sue Christie of NIEL stressed that each of us needs to act in two ways to solve this problem.
"We must each act in our own homes and offices to decrease our carbon emissions. At the same time we must press our politicians to take the decisions, which will sometimes be very difficult, that will ensure that we play our part in overcoming this global challenge.
Government requires our support in order to make the basic policy decisions which will enable us all to contribute to the 80% reduction target in CO2 emissions."
The event concluded with questions from the audience in general and students from Malone College in particular.
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