Protest calls for climate deal

Some 350 people took part in a protest in Dublin city centre today calling for action on climate change in advance of the summit to be held in Copenhagen this month.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition held the action to coincide with simultaneous actions in Belfast, Paris, London, Glasgow, Brussels and Berlin to create a giant “human wave” to call for a fair and safe deal.

The protest began at the Department of the Environment at Custom House Quay and finished outside the Department of the Taoiseach on Upper Merrion Street.

Participants wore blue garments from t-shirts and skirts to blue tinsel, towels and wetsuits and made a human wave outside the Taoiseach’s office.

Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Earth told protestors that proposals for Copenhagan did not go far enough.

“The emission cuts on the table in Copenhagen are nowhere near enough to deliver climate safety and the money they have put on the table to compensate those in the third world who have been damaged by our pollution is nowhere near enough to deliver justice,” he said.

“Only wave after wave of public opinion will ensure that our politicians act fast enough and do enough to ensure climate justice and climate safety.”

Ciara Gaynor of Trocaire said Ireland and Europe should speak up for the world’s poor and those that do not  have a voice. She said that when she spoke about environmental refugees at a climate march two years, ago she had not envisaged that there would be environmental refugees in Ireland.

She said this “really drives home that climate change has no boundaries and requires people to come together for a global response”.

Economist David McWilliams said that people would eventually accept that climate campaigners were on the right side. Ireland had a once in a generation opportunity to reinvent itself and open up to green technology, he said.