FORMER PRESIDENT Mary Robinson is returning to Ireland at the end of this year to chair a non-profit foundation that aims to foster Irish and international leadership on climate change and sustainable development.
"I'm absolutely passionate about this, and it's been a long time in the quiet planning," she said in an interview with The Irish Times. "I want the re-entry to be as effective as possible, and believe this will be good for me and good for Ireland."
The main objective of the new foundation will be to ensure that human rights are at the heart of the climate change agenda. “I’d rather not have the icon of a polar bear prancing on the ice, but a poor indigenous woman in sub-Sahara Africa,” she said.
“I feel we’ve got the debate on climate change completely wrong. The leadership to date has been provided by environmentalists and scientists and very good economists like Nicholas Stern. But there has been no human-centred approach to the issue.”
Mrs Robinson said she had no doubt, having travelled around Africa, that the poorest people were affected by climate change, and that Ireland – because of its own history – could be a “mover and shaker” for a more equitable approach.
“To effectively address climate change, we need the participation of all people everywhere with fair, accountable, transparent, and corruption-free procedures,” she said. “Relations between peoples in different parts of the world must change profoundly.”
Mrs Robinson, who has headed the New York-based Ethical Globalisation Initiative since she retired as UN high commissioner for human rights in 2002, will be joined by her former special adviser Bride Rosney as acting chief executive – both working on a pro bono basis.
“I’m really delighted to be coming home,” she said, adding that she hoped the new foundation would play a small part in raising morale here. Ireland was “in a place that’s too down at the moment”.
Dr Tara Shine will join the foundation as head of research and development next January. She has worked as a technical adviser on environment, development and climate change issues for over 12 years, including direct involvement in the UN climate talks.
The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice (MRFCJ) will be located in the Innovation Academy of the Universities established jointly by Trinity College and UCD; both universities have nominated two representatives to sit on the foundation’s board of trustees.
The foundation also has an international advisory council, which includes Richard Branson; former World Health Organisation director general Gro Harlem Brundtland; former US vice-president Al Gore, and former EU commissioner Margot Wallstrom.