— Shannon LNG emissions would be 2.5 times higher than UK gas, company tells An Bord Pleanála —
The organisers of next week’s Climate Camp in North Kerry have vowed to take direct action to obstruct new fossil fuel infrastructure and to stand up to the “powerful vested interests that are driving the planet towards destruction”.
Hundreds of people are expected to take part in Climate Camp Ireland, which runs from August 2nd to 7th on farmland next to the site of the planned Shannon LNG fracked gas import terminal on the Shannon Estuary.
It was revealed this month that Shannon LNG admitted emissions from LNG “are currently around 2.5 times higher than those of the UK gas network”. The information was provided in the company’s Environmental Impact Assessment Report to An Bord Pleanála.[1]
Climate Camp spokesperson Séamus Diskin said:
“The Climate Camp will be a family-friendly gathering for skill-sharing, learning from each other’s struggles and building a radical climate movement in Ireland, but it will also be a base for planning direct action that obstructs new fossil gas infrastructure.”
“The time for incremental reform is over. With climate change rapidly approaching irreversible tipping points, the survival of life on earth is at stake. We need to build a strong, radical climate movement that stands up to the powerful vested interests that are driving the planet towards destruction”.
As wildfires and extreme heat claimed hundreds of lives across the world this month, UN secretary general António Guterres told world leaders: “Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.” He added: “Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction.”
Séamus Diskin continued:
“In Ireland this fossil fuel addiction is driven by the huge lobbying power of the fossil gas industry, which has exploited the war in Ukraine to push for an LNG terminal. We want to send a loud and clear message that if the government allows this disastrous project to go ahead, it will meet with determined resistance. Shannon LNG would lock us into dirty fossil energy for 30-40 years, and contribute to catastrophic global heating.”
Melina Sharp of Futureproof Clare said:
“We’re joining the Climate Camp to stop the importation of climate-wrecking fracked gas which is devastating communities and nature in Pennsylvania and globally. [2]
“Clare, Limerick and Kerry have been burdened with heavy, polluting industries for decades. Now we face greater risk with the proposed fracked gas terminal and new power plant, which was lobbied for and would supply the very industries that are already poisoning the air we breathe – Rusal Alumina, Irish Cement and the many proposed gas-fired data centres such as the one on the edge of Ennis town.
“Current ‘environmental’ permits and expansion proposals are causing devastating illness and will lead to catastrophic losses in the estuary. We cannot afford to allow this systematic violation of the natural world of which we form part. We invite you all to become invaluable voices for (the rights of) nature.”
Johnny McElligott of local campaign group Safety Before LNG said:
“There has been a local campaign resisting this planned terminal since 2007. Gas continues to be touted as a ‘transition fuel’ but the peer-reviewed science is clear – gas causes as much harm to the climate as coal or oil. And due to methane leakages and the energy involved in processing and transport, fracked gas transported via LNG has a carbon equivalent footprint 44% higher than coal over the crucial 20-year period.[3]
“The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports from 2021 (table 7.15, page 139) have indicated a Global Warming Potential (GWP) for methane 108 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe.”[4]
The diverse programme of events at the Climate Camp includes workshops on fossil fuels, fracking and LNG; direct action training; connecting with nature; data centres and climate; immigrant solidarity; Irish conversation classes; food and seed sovereignty; community housing activism; and a radical art research space.
There will also be music, céilí, poetry, a herbal plants walk, forest school and more. The Climate Camp is organised by activists from across Ireland and local campaigners. It will be a co-created, democratically organised space – everyone who takes part is involved in making it happen.
You can contact Climate Camp Ireland at: climatecampireland@gmail.com.
ABOUT CLIMATE CAMP IRELAND
Climate Camp Ireland is organised by a collective of environmental campaigners, community activists and others from across the island of Ireland. The main organising group is Slí Eile, an anti-capitalist climate action group.
Climate Camp Ireland has three main aims:
• Bringing people together to build a strong, radical climate movement on the island of Ireland
• Creating a collectively held space that provides a model of the society we want and need beyond capitalism
• Resisting the planned Shannon LNG terminal.
Email: climatecampireland@gmail.com
Web: https://climatecampireland.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sli_eile_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ireland.climatecamp/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sli_eile/
NOTES
- In the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) submitted by Shannon LNG with its planning application, the company stated that the full life-cycle, “upstream WTT [Well-toTank] emissions of LNG, resulting from the extraction, processing, liquefaction and transport of the gas, are … currently around 2.5 times higher than those of the UK gas network”. Full details in Safety Before LNG’s press release of July 15th, 2022:
http://safetybeforelng.ie/pressreleases/pressrelease20220715-ShannonLNG-admits-LNG-emissions-2-and-a-half-higher-than-UK-gas-network.html - Detailed evidence that the gas imported via the Shannon LNG terminal would be gas sourced from fracking in the US:
http://www.safetybeforelng.ie/images/EvidenceShannonLNGisForFrackedGasImports.pdf - Testimony of Prof Robert W. Howarth, Cornell University, before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action, 9 October 2019
https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/32/joint_committee_on_climate_action/submissions/2019/2019-10-10_opening-statement-robert-w-howarth-ph-d-cornell-university_en.pdf - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Sixth Assessment Report, 2021
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Full_Report.pdf