Moving house

We're moving the blog to a new home (with a new name) so things will be a bit quiet around here for the next couple of weeks.

5,000 birds fall out of the sky

Weird story from Arkansas. Five thousand blackbirds dropped dead out of the sky on New Year's Eve, all within a square mile (they must have a lot of blackbirds in Arkansas?). Then, unrelatedly, 83,000 thousand dead fish washed up along the Arkansas river.

Ireland to outstrip Europe on carbon emission cuts

Ireland is to enact an ambitious climate change law that goes beyond the EU Commission’s carbon emissions targets.

The Minister for the Environment John Gormley, this morning published a Bill (statement below) that sets a target of 2.5% cuts in emissions on 2008 levels each year until 2020. The Bill sets a medium-term goal of a 30% cut on 1990 levels by 2030. By comparison, the EU Commission stated last May that the EU’s current trajectory would see a drop of only 25% by 2030.

The main current EU target is a reduction in carbon emissions of 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.

The new legislation will establish tackling climate change as a national priority in Ireland with a statutory basis. Government ministers will be required to produce sectoral climate change mitigation strategies.

Unsurprisingly, the influential farmers’ lobby is furious. Agriculture will almost certainly have to take some sort of hit if Ireland’s emissions are to fall in any serious way. Farming remains the single biggest contributor to Ireland’s greenhouse gas output, responsible for just under 30% of emissions last year, and eclipsing emissions from the industrial and commercial, and transport sectors.

The Irish Farming Association (IFA) President, John Bryan, has rubbished the Green Party’s decision to prioritise the Climate Change Bill as “badly thought out.”

“We have a low carbon model of food production and Government policy must not undermine the sector’s ability to drive exports and jobs as part of our economic recovery,” Bryan claimed.

The IFA's inevitable opposition is unlikely to ruin Christmas for Gormley et al, who seem more worried about their legacy at this stage of the (end) game, than courting popularity with rural voters.

The only nod to farmers' interests in Ministers' Gormley's and Ryan's statement is a couple of very vague paragraphs tacked onto the bottom. These are to do with agriculture and forestry's potential for sequestration, which is when emissions are offset by trees and plants absorbing atmospheric carbon.

The climate law is due to be enacted in February, a few weeks at most before the Dáil is likely to be dissolved ahead of the general election. (Bookmaker Paddy Power is offering 8/11 odds on no Green TDs being returned).

Friends of the Earth today backed the Green Party legislation and accused the IFA of “scaremongering.”

The organisation’s director in Ireland, Oisín Coghlan, said the climate change Bill was the equivalent of the banking regulation Ireland should have had 10 years ago to prevent the current economic crisis in the country.

“It [the Bill] will prevent the next bubble, one driven by a belief that pollution can rise forever without leading to a crash," Coghlan said last week.

Full text of the Climate Change Bill press release

[Pretty much all waffle until the bit near the bottom in bullet points.]

Mr John Gormley, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, and Mr Ciaran Cuffe, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of the Environment with responsibility for Climate Change, today (23rd December, 2010) published the Climate Change Response Bill 2010. The Bill, which has been in preparation for the past eighteen months, is a legislative priority for the Government and Ministers Gormley and Cuffe will be seeking to progress it through the Houses of the Oireachtas immediately, with a view to enactment in February 2011.

The Bill sets out a robust statutory basis to strengthen the national response to climate change. Key provisions include ambitious but realistic national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020, 2030 and 2050; a new national planning process encompassing both mitigation and adaptation; a new annual process on reporting to the Oireachtas; and a new Expert Advisory Body to advise Government on policy and implementation.

The objective of the statutory approach is to reinforce Government policy on positioning Ireland as a responsible country on climate change, with a progressive policy response focussed on transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable future. Transition aims to address the challenges and embrace the opportunities that climate change presents for Ireland and to significantly reduce our over-dependence on imported sources of fossil fuel energy.

"Climate change is an issue that not only threatens the natural environment we depend on, but also raises serious concerns regarding the potential impact on economic activity and the social fabric of society," Minister Gormley said. "This legislation is about planning for the future. It's about protecting our economy and our society in the long term."

"Constructing a low-carbon economy is an enormous challenge, but it is a challenge that also brings immense opportunities. The low-carbon economy of the future will see the development of new industrial sectors. These new clean technologies will create new jobs and develop new sources of economic growth development".

Minister Cuffe said: "With our unique geographical, climatic and human-capital advantages, the enactment of this Bill will send a very clear signal to the global investment and business community that the direction of public policy in Ireland is unambiguous and that Ireland is a prime location for long-term investment opportunities."

"Since entering Government in 2007, we have been working solidly to ensure that Ireland is at the forefront of the international response to combating Climate Change. In an era of ever rising energy prices and insecurity, addressing Climate Change not only makes sound environmental sense but equally sound economic and social sense, particularly for job creation."

On enactment, the legislation will establish our response to climate change as a national priority; that is a major policy milestone for this country in terms both of our contribution to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and preparing to engage effectively and successfully in the clean, high-tech, low-carbon global economy of tomorrow.

"The emphasis on transition is key to the twin objectives of greenhouse gas mitigation and effective preparation in the low-carbon global economy," Minister Gormley said. "Targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are important indicators of our progress but let's not lose
sight of the big picture, the long-term vision of where we want to be. That, in my view, is a significant and necessary change in our approach to climate change policy; transition is so fundamental that we need a very clear and strong focus on the ultimate objective - a future that is economically and environmentally sustainable - if we are to map out a progressive and successful future for our country."

The Minister also announced that a public consultation period will run until 28th January 2011. All information relevant to this consultation can be found on the Department*s website, www.environ.ie.

The main provisions of the Bill include:

• to underpin a core objective on transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable society;
• a short-term target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average 2.5% per year, compared to 2008 emissions, by 2020;
• a medium-term target to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030 and a long-term target of 80% by 2050, both compared to 1990 emissions, both targets will serve as key milestones on the transition pathway;
• a requirement for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with the approval of the Government, to produce a National Climate Change Plan which will address both
• greenhouse gas mitigation, and adaptation to the inevitable impacts of global climate change;
• a provision for the Government to require such Ministers as it considers appropriate to produce Sectoral Climate Change Plans to address mitigation and adaptation in their areas of responsibility;
• an Annual Transition Statement will provide accountability to the Oireachtas in relation to progress towards the transition goal, the milestone targets and implementation of the National Climate Change Plan (the Annual Transition Statement will replace the current Carbon Budget process);
• establishment of an Expert Advisory Body to advise Ministers and the Government in relation to functions under the Bill, including the national and sectoral planning processes, and the annual transition statement process; and
• obligations to be introduction for public bodies in relation to greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation to global climate change.

Minister Cuffe said: "The Climate Change Response Bill provides the framework for our Transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, environmentally sustainable and climate resilient society. All sectors of society have a part to play in this transition to a climate resilient society. Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and Ireland has been active on the international scene to ensure that the link between climate change and food security is fully recognised in international agreements.

"The emphasis on the sustainability of agricultural production in Food Harvest 2020 serves as a reminder of the importance of avoiding carbon leakage in successfully implementing global climate policy as well as maximising the potential for increasing sustainable employment domestically."

"Within our own policies, we emphasise the importance of an integrated approach to the emissions and sequestration from agriculture, forestry and natural ecosystems. They must be considered together; agricultural and forestry policies must address the major potential for increased sequestration from farmed land, forestry and perennial energy crops. I look forward to further interaction with the Farming Organisations to exploit these potential opportunities and maximising Ireland's efforts to fight Climate Change."

ENDS

What to feed the birds

Right so we don't care if this is totally naff: it's time for a post on the dos and don'ts of feeding the birds during the cold weather.

Here's how to sort the hazelnut whirls (yum) from the coffee crèmes (ugh), as told to us by Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland.

Yum:

• Sunflower seeds. If birds were people and the mixed birdseed you get in supermarkets was Cadbury's Roses, sunflower seeds would be the purple ones. The other stuff is just filler – pigeons can eat it, but little birds like finches only really like the sunflower seed.
• Stale cake and biscuits if you have any lying around. In winter, birds need a very high-calorie diet.
• Wholegrain bread, cos they like the seeds. Bread is easier to digest if it is soaked in water first.
• Peanuts in a wire mesh feeder.
• Fat e.g. suet.
• It’s also a good idea to put out a dish of water (and replace it if it freezes). Birds need to keep their feathers clean for insulation.

Ugh:

• Uncooked rice because it absorbs moisture and swells in their stomachs, which is very harmful. Cooked rice is ok.
• White bread won’t do any damage but it isn’t very nutritious. Brown bread is alright, but wholegrain is better.
• Loose peanuts: easy to choke on.
• Salt: toxic to birds.

In my garden (in Lucan) this winter there have been about six or eight collared doves (pictured left) every day, which we never really had before. They look like pigeons but much prettier and not as fat.

Collared doves first came to Ireland as recently as 1959, apparently, and they mostly live in suburbs and small towns. They almost exclusively live near human settlements.

In the 19^th-century, these birds were only found in sub-tropical Asia. By the 1930s they had reached the Balkans, and they spread to England in 1955. In the 1970s they somehow ended up in the Falklands, and then in the Bahamas and they are now considered invasive in Florida. They're basically on the brink of world domination but nobody knows why their population has exploded. Here’s an interesting article about them from the Examiner earlier this year.

December 17's show

On this programme:

• Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland on why Irish migratory birds can't cope with the cold, and what food to put out in your garden over Christmas.
• Short-term gain, long-term pain? Padraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust says the latest EU fishing quotas could spell disaster for the eco-system in Irish waters.

As well as this week's environmental news.

Presented by Leah Leiva and produced by Valerie Flynn. Research and reports by Louise Finan and Valerie Flynn.

Podcast of Friday, December 10's show

On this programme:

1. Professor John Sweeney of NUIM on the latest round of climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico.
2. Claire McDonald reports on Dublin City Council's attempts to become more energy efficient.
3. Labour Party Councillor Dermot Lacey on the new building height guidelines for Dublin.

As well as the week's environment news.

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Presented by Leah Leiva. News by Valerie Flynn. Produced by Christina McSorley and Valerie Flynn.