Friends of the Earth Ireland - Blog

Land Grabs - Liberia's Titanic Problem

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:28:00 +0100

Cartoon - Titanic Fair Share
Titanic Cartoon

by Jamie Gorman

Sitting in the rural Liberian village of Small Bong Mines, about to eat a meal at the house of one of my new colleagues at the Sustainable Development Institute -Friends of the Earth (FoE) Liberia- the voice of Celine Dion unexpectedly floated across the dead heat of the midday sun. 'Near, far, where ever you are,' she cried, 'my heart will go on'. The local radio station was commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a terrible tragedy that cost the lives of 1,500 people in icy Atlantic waters. The parallels between that 'unsinkable' liner and this West African republic may at first seem distant. Yet as I sat, stomach grumbling in anticipation of the rice and fish dish being freshly prepared in front of us, it became clear that there are some important similarities.

I have spent much of the last week living with and meeting the communities who, without their consent, now find themselves living on an 110,000 hectare palm oil plantation as a result of a land grab that has given a total of 220,000 hectares to Malaysian based trans-national company (TNC) Sime Darby. FoE Libera, has been active in a number of these communities and has held public meetings. This week has focused on engaging those isolated communities who have not yet received much information or participated in dialogue, as well as revisiting and sustaining support for those who are already working with FoE Liberia and actively engaging in natural resource and community rights issues.

Like the Titanic, the sheer scale of this land grab is unbelievable. The Liberian government has signed a 63 year contract with Sime Darby (in a country where the average life expectancy is 46 this is hard to fathom), after which the lands will revert to government ownership and never return to the communities that have customarily held them for generations. The contract gives the company the power to decide which communities it wishes to displace and resettle, although by taking the land from which communities derive their livelihoods Sime Darby can force the communities to leave voluntarily without the company needing to bear the cost or publicity of resettling them.

As the Titanic slipped underwater on the night of 15 April 1912, the lifeboats were deployed to save the wealthiest first class and second class passengers. The majority of third class passengers- many of whom had been forced to emigrate to escape from poverty in Britain and Ireland- and the working class crew remained on the ship as it sank. They drowned inside the flooding compartments or froze in the water under the starry Atlantic sky. Their social class marginalisation resulted in their lives being divested of value and in this situation of life or death they were not afforded the right to choose. Their right to respect and dignity was not considered important compared to that of the wealthy passengers.

Here in Liberia, the communities of this land grab will be removed from their land, displaced from their homes and denied their culture. Much like rural Ireland, where newcomers to a community remain 'blow-ins' decades after they have blown in, displaced communities will be strangers where ever there go for generations to come. Generations will suffer from the violence of this injustice as the respect they are refused today continues to deny them their dignity tomorrow. Like many of the working class victims of the Titanic disaster, the victims of this land grab are from marginalised and rural communities. They have not been considered important enough to be afforded the right to choose their own futures.

Although the effects will not be as suddenly realised as those of the Titanic's iceberg encounter, they will be just as devastating. 'If we agree to this we will be enslaving ourselves on our own land. We will have to migrate or we will die!' noted one impassioned community leader. He suggested that the company had tried to give him money and that government officials had made efforts to coerce him into agreeing to the land grab. 'They infringe on the rights of the common man so that they can get what they want,' he exclaimed, 'these guys are making big money; they don't want to respect our customary rights.'

For this fragile democracy, barely ten years out of terrible civil war, the potential for land grabbing and resource exploitation to plunge the country back into unrest is very real. There is great need for civil society organisations to bolster democracy, accountability and governance- so that the government works for the people and not TNC's profits. In this way the amazing work of FoE Liberia is very timely. They are providing the information about what will happen that the company has failed to tell people, they are working for collective action in the communities so their voices can be heard and helping them to engage in the discourse on climate change and natural resources that they have been cut out of because it has been controlled by global elites for the benefit of their own profits.

Sitting below the same stars under which Titanic floundered, listening to one FoE organiser explaining carbon trading to farmers in a tiny remote village, was mind-blowing. These are the people who will be affected by monoculture plantations that Northern TNCs will benefit from; these are the people who will be affected by the climate change that those companies will help to bring about. Yet no one had ever thought that their opinion mattered- And of course, their opinion doesn't matter to the companies' profits. But if Liberian development is to continue full steam ahead, and not run aground as the Titanic did one hundred years ago, then their opinions must matter. If these rural communities are sacrificed for the benefit and profit of Liberia's 'first class passengers' then the world will have failed to prevent a gross injustice and Liberia will fail to reach its final destination where all people are treated with the equal dignity and respect they deserve.

Is the Environment Minister's cart before his horse?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:29:00 +0100

Horse before cart
Cart before the horse.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan appeared before the Environment committee this afternoon. I find it rather strange to say he "appeared before them". But this phrasing is how people generally describe it when a minister goes in to talk to a committee, especially if he is invited. It brings to my mind images of gable walls and miraculous visions. So there he was anyway, a vision of joviality. He didn't however have any particularly healing words to impart. The Environment committee had hauled him in to clear up some uncertainty caused by his remarks about climate legislation at the end of October. At the time it was reported that the minister had said climate legislation was not a priority for him. As can be expected he was criticised widely for this. For a particularly to the point criticism you should listen to Professor of climatology John Sweeney's interview on drivetime. (It starts about one hour and fifty minutes in)

Minister Hogan accepted the invitation to appear before the committee to "clarify" his position. We issued a press release calling on him to stop delaying on the bill and to progress the legislation as a matter of urgency. Many of you took our email action to the committee telling them to stay strong and ask for a climate bill from Minister Hogan..

In his speech to the committee the Minister set out that he is still committed to passing legislation in this Government. However first he wants to do extensive consultation on what climate change policy measures to introduce before legislation is passed. He wants NESC (the National Economic and Social Council) to examine a review of climate policy in depth. This is putting the cart before the horse. A climate law has never been about measures to reduce emissions. Its about putting in place a system to make sure that those measures are actually taken. We already know what the policy measures are needed to reduce emissions; more renewable energy, better public transport, retro fitted homes. We don't suffer from a lack of solutions to climate change, we suffer form a lack of the political will to implement them. A climate law is about making sure that a sound system of planning exists to ensure governments can't find reasons for delay.

A climate law means that governments must explain exactly what targets they are going to meet in the next five years. The targets we have under Kyoto and the EU are often set well in advance and don't mean anything to politicians who think in election cycles. A climate law means that the environment minister has to go before the Dail every year and say if we are on track to meet our targets or not. If we are not then they must explain what they are going to do to get back on track. A climate law sets up a climate change committee to give independent expert advise to government. The climate change committee can advise on what measures are best. The Minister shouldn't be putting more work at NESC's door, he should be setting up a climate change committee. A commitee who's starting point will be meeting targets that avoid dangerous climate change. There is no miracle cure for climate change, and some tough decisions will have to be made. Waiting around until there is political consensus on every measure before it is implemented is cowardly politics and will lead us to climate collapse.

Some members of the environment committee were quite concerned with the Minister's approach. As Gerald Nash(Louth) said, if we wait for consensus on all the measures we'll only "move as quickly as the most obstinate stakeholder will allow."

For the most part the questions and the comments from the TDs on the committee were very well informed and positive. Kevin Humphreys of Dublin South East pressed the Minister twice on his delay in producing a bill imploring that we "think global and act local"

Brian Stanley (Laois/Offally) also pressed the Minister and wanted to see a bill produced as soon as possible. He made the point that there is nothing to stop consultation on the policy measure continuing at the same time as a Bill is being considered by the environment committee.

Some worrying remarks came from Paudi Coffey (Waterford) who welcomed the "sensible" caution of the Miniater and said that "we shouldn't set targets unless we know we can meet them". This is really rather missing the point on climate change.

The emissions that we are putting into the atmosphere are causing dangerous climate change and unless we set targets for serious reductions AND meet them then we are going to face devastating impacts from extreme weather events. We can not afford to only set targets we can meet, nor can we afford to wait for concenus on every measure before legislating. Dangersous climate change will not be averted by any miracoulous visons, we must act now.

News on the climate law.

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:53:00 +0100

Minister for Environment-Phil hogan
Phil hogan must produce climate legislation that Ireland can be proud of.

Climate policy has ticked along steadily since the Fine Gael / Labour government came to power last spring. Progress has been steady rather than spectular, but the stage is set for key decisions to be taken in the next couple of months.

A good starting point has been the Programme for Government, which has the following commitment to a climate law.
- "We will publish a Climate Change Bill which will provide certainty surrounding government policy and provide a clear pathway for emissions reductions, in line with negotiated EU 2020 targets."

This is certainly thanks to the campaigning efforts of Friends of the Earth supporters and allies, reflected in the fact that all the main parties made commitments to climate legislation during the general election campaign. Only Labour promised a law at the last election in 2007.

Government Legislation Programme
In the legislative programme published on 4th April and updated on 14th September climate change legislation appears in Section C, "Bills in respect of which heads have yet to be approved by Government" and says "Publication Expected - 2012".

Minister Hogan and his Department
In a meeting with the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership on 18th May, attended by Friends of the Earth director, Oisin Coghlan, Minister Hogan laid out his approach to the issue.

He said he is committed to having a Bill enacted before the end of 2012
He wants to get it done early in the electoral cycle to avoid the mess that happened when the "old Bill" got caught up in pre-election politics.
But he doesn't want to rush it. He wants to prepare the ground, including by engaging with stakeholders, to avoid the opposition that met the last Bill.
He said he would like to publish Heads for the new Bill this year and refer it to the appropriate Oireachtas committee to hold stakeholder hearings, which would inform the preparation of the full Bill.

On his appointment he initiated an internal review of climate policy by his Department. It was due to completed in time for the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Climate Change but was delayed due to other priorities. It is now finished and will be considered by the committee at it's next meeting in October.

Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Green Economy
This new Cabinet Committee met for the first time on 30th June. It is chaired by the Taoiseach and convened by Minister Hogan. Nine out of 15 cabinet ministers sit on it, as does the Attorney General and three ministers of state. This committee will oversee climate policy in general, including presumably the preparation and passing of legislation. It is serviced by an inter-departmental senior officials group. The Committee is due to meet again in October.

The Cabinet Committee on Climate and the Minister's desire to get the legislation passed by the end of next year are good steps. The urgency of climate change means that this process can't go fast enough. Here in Friends of the Earth we are keeping a close watch on all climate policy and climate politics and we're continuing to push this Environment minister, just as we did the last one, to make Irish climate policy something we can all be proud of.

No Consent

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:42:00 +0100

Publication cover - ICCL FoE letter to GSOC 2011-0407

The 10th of November 2006 was the 11th anniversary of Ken Sara Wiva's death. It was also the first time in my life that I experienced police brutality. The thing that connects these two facts is the corrupt power of Royal Dutch Shell. Something that was highlighted again yesterday with the emerging in the media of a recording of Gardai discussing raping women they have just arrested. It is horrifying and shocking to hear men in a position of power repeatedly use the word rape as part of an attempt to joke, what i feel is even worse is their raucous lads laughter that now rings in my ears. The women they arrested were peacefully protesting against the raw gas pipeline that shell is building in Mayo against the consent of the local community there. There is a good article on the whole sickening incident on Indymedia. What is illustrated by this recording is the dominance and brutality towards campaigners that has marked the policing operation since 2006.

November 2006 wasn't the first time that I had been to Mayo in solidarity with the campaign there. I had previously been very impressed to find such a strong and energetic community there determined not to let Shell walk all over them. I had met members of the community in pubs, outside the refinery site and at the solidarity camp and they had all said how welcome any help was. This is why I responded to the national day of action that was called for the 10th of November. It was a long and scarey day in which I was not only dragged along a road by my hair but was also thrown very forcibly into a ditch full of barbed wire. The 10th of November 2006 was also the first day that a Gardai baton charge was ever used in Erris and only the 2nd time in the history of the state. That evening local people and people who had travelled in solidarity gathered in the pub. Everyone was battered and bruised and we watched horrified as Bertie Ahern said on the TV that the project was going ahead and "that is it".

Initially I was reluctant to return for a while, In retrospect I was quite shaken by the whole thing and returning didn't feel safe. But my urge to get back there, to where a community is fighting a multinational oil company to try and protect themselves and their environment, won out in the end. I still travel several times a year to meet and support the amazing people who live there. The policing hasn't gotten any better. There are a catalogue of disturbing incidents involving prominent campaigners being targeted and attacked like Willie Corduff and Pat O Donnell. I don't ever enjoy interacting with Gardai in Mayo. It feels horrible to be pushed and held by men who are bigger and stronger than me the fact that they are Gardai doesn't make it any better. Now however, my worst fears of how they may think about us as campaigners have been confirmed. I have scars on my legs from the barbed wire I was thrown onto in 2006 but they are now accompanied by much deeper scars from hearing the Gardai talk and laugh about raping people like me.

The Freinds of the Earth press releaes on Corrib police recording is here.

For more information

www.shelltosea.com

www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org

What a week, Broken Promises, Carbon Budgets and More Promises.

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:38:00 +0100

Gormley on Carbon Budget Day
John Gormley outlined the contents of the coming Climate Bill in his speech in the Dáil.

What a week. What a year.

I started last week feeling rather concerned. John Gormley had promised that the Climate Bill would be published before the Dail session ended for Christmas and that was on Thursday. I've lived through a year of broken promises and pushed out deadlines, could it really be about to happen? I didn't have any indication either way but my experience taught me to be concerned.

On Tuesday Ciaran Cuffe was speaking at the IIEA about his experience in Cancun. He opened his speech by saying that coming back from Cancun was like coming out of the frying pan and into the fire, as he had gone straight into negotiations about the Climate Bill.

I wasn't in Cancun this year, I didn't think me being there would make enough difference to justify the carbon footprint of a flight to Mexico. Colleagues in the Friends of th Earth network were there though and you can read the FoE reaction here. The UN has once again left us with a weak deal without legally binding emissions cuts. Speaking about Cancun, Minister Cuffe said that the Cancun agreements saved the process but didn't save the planet. About the Bill he said the same thing he said in his speech in Cancun. "Our approach is novel, Our outlook progressive". When the politicians say things like this I think "Huh?" What they hell do you mean?". These are close to meaningless phrases. At least he was continuing to make the promise publically about it being published before Christmas. Speaking with him afterwards it was clear that frantic negotiations were still ongoing between the Greens and the rest of Government. It was also clear however that he was well aware of the pressure that Friends of the Earth were keeping on the Greens. The all I want for Christmas action was working.

Timing-wise it was therefore very interesting to note that the IFA were on the radio on Wednesday claiming that the Bill was being "rushed through", surely a pre-mature claim for a Bill not even published never mind in the Dáil. We issued a press release refuting their claims the next day.

So Thursday dawned and we knew that it was Carbon Budget day, but we couldn't find out if the Minister for the Environment was going to hold a press conference on it as he had done in previous years. Today was the last day of the Dáil session and the Carbon Budget was the natural time to announce the Bill's publication. Eventually about midday we found out that it had been decided that it would just be the Dail speech and no press conference. The Carbon Budget is not what it once was.

Myself and our Director Oisín Coghlan went into the Dail to watch the Ministers climate speech. From what we were hearing it was clear the Bill wasn't being published today but Minister Gormley was going to outline much of the content of the bill in his speech. Almost all of the Green Parliamentary party was in the Dail to see Minister Gormley give his speech, Including all three senators. not surprising really given that hey have all received hundreds of emails from Friends of the Earth campaigners saying "all i want for Christmas is a climate bill". Minister Gromley made his speech and the Fine Gael and Labour spokespeople made their comments. You can read the full debate on the Oireachtas website. You can also watch it online on the Dáil playback system follow the link the Carbon Budget bit starts at 03.23.58.

Minister Gromley made a strong speech, and said all the right things. The content of the Bill that he was outlining has strengths and weaknesses. It will be hard to tell exactly how good the Bill is until it is published and we can actually read it. One big worry however is the lack of legally binding five year Carbon Budgets. If a Government can serve a five-year term without ever facing a legal target it would render the Bill toothless.

Another thing that really struck me about the debate was how strong and supportive Phil Hogan of Fine Gael was, He said
"I acknowledge that after three and a half years in government, the Green Party has made a major contribution to the climate change debate. Next week, the Green Party Ministers will announce a climate change Bill which is excellent progress. I know it was not easy for the Ministers to pursue this matter through Cabinet because it is an area with many vested and conflicting interests. Fine Gael will be as a constructive as always in the climate change committee when the Bill comes before it."

Our press release on what was said that day is here. As we say in the press release another broken promise but with a more detailed IOU. And this is true. However I think that 2010 was a year that we can all be proud of. Everyone who campaigned for climate legislation in any way has made a huge impact. The Government knows people are paying attention to this issue and they have to deliver. We know our activists and campaigners still have a big fight ahead. Getting the Bill published was only ever the first stage. With vested interests like the IFA mobilising against the legislation now, getting a strong bill through the Dail won't be easy. Lots of us are up for the fight now and more are jumping on board all the time.

So Happy Christmas everyone, enjoy the break and see you in January for an Ass-kicking new year!

Have the Greens delivered on Climate Change?

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:20:00 +0100

The short answer is no. The long answer goes something like this.

Not yet but they still can. Last Autumn the Greens renegotiated their programme for Government with Fianna Fail. As John Gormley said at the time, "Fianna Fail went into Government with us because they wanted us and now they're in Government with us because they need us" The Green Party's political capital was at its all time high. One of the key gains in the renewed programme for Government was that there would be a climate bill. I was delighted. This was something that Friends of the Earth had been calling for for a long time. When I was in Copenhagen last year John Gormley published the Framework for a climate change bill 2010. This had some strengths and some weaknesses. The plan was to publish the Heads of the Climate Bill in the First Quarter of 2010. The end of the first quarter of 2010 was a long time ago and still there is nothing. Nothing has been published by the Government on climate legislation since that Framework Document last December.

Its been a long old year and we kept being told that the bill was being worked on. For the whole year it was being worked on. When the Dail came back after the summer break we were very dissapointed to see that it wasn''t on the legislative programme and we issued a press release saying that. Ever since then we have pressured the greens on where the Climate Bill is and what is taking so long. For several months now the Green ministers have been saying it will be released "soon" or "in the very near future". Two weeks ago John Gormley tweeted the following "Heads of climate change bill to be agreed by cabinet on Tuesday"
However on Tuesday night came and not a peep out of the Greens on climate...

So I wrote to Minister Gormley to ask him what had happened. Late Friday night I got a very nice reply from him that said he was glad to tell me that the Government had agreed a Climate Bill and it would be published before the end of the Dail session this year. I had a nice weekend. On Monday the Greens announced they wanted a general election by the end of January. Effectively this means they are pulling out of Government in the new year. It changes everything.

If the Greens leave Government without passing Climate Legislation it will be a source of great dissapointment, not only to me but to many people. When John Gormley and Eamon Ryan were recommending going into Government to their members in the mansion house in 2007 they said they knew it was a deal with the devil. But they said that the urgency of climate change meant it was worth it. It was why they went to planet bertie, to save planet earth from the climate crisis. They still have time to deliver. It is three weeks before the Dail breaks for Christmas. Just yesterday the Taoiseach was responding to questions in the Dail about Climate legislation. Frustrated about the delay with the climate bill Deputy Liz McManus asked Brian Cowen to explain what the hell is going on. All he did was promise it would be published before the end of the year.

The Green party's legacy on climate hangs in the balance. Publish their Climate bill and get it into the Dail in the New Year and they will have something to be proud of. Leave without it, and they will have been to planet bertie and back, and failed on the aim of the mission.

Positive noises as Oireachtas Committee publishes Climate Change Bill

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 09:52:00 +0100

Joint-Committee-on-Climate-Change-and-Energy-Security

Yesterday the Oireachtas Climate Change Committee published a full Climate Change Bill with support from the members of the Committee from all parties. Read the committee's press release here.

Ministers Gormley and Cuffe responded with a pretty positive press release welcoming the Committee's Bill and, more importantly saying the Government Bill would be agreed and published "in the very near future". Earlier in the day the Taoiseach told the Dáil that the draft climate bill would be published "soon".

Friends of the Earth has also welcomed the Committee's Bill and urged the Government to build on this expression of consensus by bringing its own bill to the house as soon as possible before Christmas.

Today's Irish Times has a short report on it.

Our current email action - to the ministers who will decide on the Gov Bill - is still relevant, and we know it's been making an impact. If you haven't taken it already, please do take it now.

Coping with Copenhagen

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:52:00 +0100

Copenhagen was personally very disappointing for me. I did not expect there to be a final legally binding treaty agreed there but I had hoped for better things. I had hoped that perhaps movement would be made on sticky issues in the negotiating texts and that by the time things came to a close there would be maybe three or four areas that still needed to be worked through in 2010. What actually hap pended was that a parallel process developed, the process of drawing together the Copenhagen Accord. This sapped attention and focus from the real texts that have been being negotiated since the UN meeting in Bali two years ago.

The Bella Centre was a strange soulless place. I had moments of complete desperation at some points in my two weeks. I would look at the the conference characters milling around the coffee areas and feel that the whole thing was very surreal. A negotiation not to destroy the world? People were networking, joking chatting and doing business all around me. Ostensibly the reason for this conference was that the actions of millions of people on one side of the globe are threatening the lives of millions of people on the other side. I felt like running up to someone and grabbing them by the lapels of their expensive suit and screaming "This is very serious and very urgent! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!???" But no, that would have been deemed crazy.

I did finally make it home from Brussels and enjoyed a cold Christmas at home trying not to worry about the UN process too much. When I returned to work, I noticed that lots of people seemed unsure what to do next. Some activists felt very disheartened by the process. The UN themselves seemed unsure how to continue. The EU were reeling from having been sidelined as a major player. As one journalist put it, the EU had prepared a bed for China and the US hoping to share it with them but was not invited to join them. In my opinion if the EU want to be seen as a major player on the international stage again then they should stop rolling over and taking it when the US trys to screw them with something like the Copenhagen Accord. I realised that people who had a lot invested in Copenhagen were finding it hard to cope. I was particularly struck by Minister Gormley's last video blog form Copenhagen. A tired looking Gormley says that he is very disappointed by the half-baked outcome. He says though, that he has been disheartened before. Like John I'm keeping on keeping on.

We can not allow our negotiators and politicians to fail us again. They have a second chance in Mexico. Negotiators and the UN secretariat have been scratching their heads for while unsure quite what to do next. There was another confusing setback when Evo De Boer resigned to go and work for KPMG. Things however are slowly getting back on track now. An date for intesessional negotiations has been set for April in Bonn.

The best contribution that our small country can make to ensuring a successful binding agreement in Mexico is to get our own house in order. At 17 tonnes per capita we are not exactly a world leader on climate change, but all that might just be about to change. Thanks to campaigning by Friends of the Earth activists John Gormley has agreed to this Government passing a climate law this year. A climate law is like the architecture to move the country to a low carbon economy. It builds trust with other countries that we will actually keep our promises on reduction targets and generally boosts our credibility as a country serious about climate change. Email John Gormley now and tell him not to be disheartened by Copenhagen (or anything else) there is lots that he can do as minister here.