Green Economy

greeneneration

The Green Economy . .It's up to us to harness itA new path for our generation, on the island of Ireland, to take us out of unemployment, economic struggle, fossil fuels and climate change.

Let's Make it Happen!

younggreens

Open any newspaper, tune into any news broadcast, even listen to the word on the street… it doesn’t paint a pretty picture does it? Jobs losses, credit crunch, economic downturn, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, cutbacks and hardships, pollution and environmental degradation.

How can this concoction of negativity lead to the productivity, radical thinking, confidence and entrepreneurship that is needed to tackle the economic crisis as well as the ecological crisis?

Well we cannot bury our heads in the sand, we cannot simply ignore the truth… but what we can do is show you that there are solutions out there and there is hope for us and future generations.

The Young Greens believe the solution that will take us towards a sustainable society of job creation, economic stability, environmental protection, massive cutbacks to CO2 emissions and fuel security through renewable energy is the Green Economy.

With this publication we want to show how you can play your part in the fight against climate change and the promotion of a green sustainable society in the Green Economy. Thousands of jobs are being created in this industry and with the information contained in this leaflet we hope that you can become a part of it!

Today’s youth are in a critical position, we are the generation that has to repair the damage caused by the previous generations. The Green Economy is the mechanism in which we can do this. The Green Economy is here - it’s up to us to make it work!

www.younggreens.ie/greengeneration

EditorialMark McCormickYoung Greens Campaigns Officer 2009-2010

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There is enormous potential to generate environmentally-friendly energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar power, hydro, geothermal and biomass.

Many of the technologies have already proven to be economically viable and, in an era of high oil prices, more will become

so! Ensuring that Ireland, North and South, realises its renewables potential will: reduce our dependence on imported energy and deliver much needed jobs, economic growth, an end to fuel poverty and also as playing a central role in our response to climate change.

What does green energy mean to us?

It virtually goes without saying these days that post-Independent Ireland has reached a critical point in its history. With the trauma of the crash, and the

sobering consequences of dealing with ongoing repercussions, a young person today may be forgiven for wondering what kind of future they might reasonably expect in this country. Faith in the political system has reached a low point – as lamentable as that may be, if people start to lose faith in our own ability to lift ourselves out of this crisis we have a far, far greater problem.

However between our existing skill and infrastructure, and our vast potential, we can not only return Ireland to prosperity – if we make the right policy choices now we can also make this prosperity sustainable. In short, we must do what many countries have already started to do – build a smarter, greener economy.

So how do we accomplish this? Looking at Ireland’s productive capacity, we find that large amounts of our economic activity is concentrated in a few fields; Agriculture, Communications, Energy, Finance, Manufacturing, Tourism, and Traded Services. It’s true these sectors are suffering right now, however in each lie vast opportunities for sustainable growth, and thousands of new jobs.

Green Economy, Green JobsAgricultureEstablishing Ireland’s green agricultural credentials is vital to giving Irish produce a competitive advantage over other mass-produced, intensively-manufactured foodstuffs in Europe and North America.

CommunicationsOur new exemplar network, activated just this summer, can handle up to 2.5 terabytes of data. That’s twice the volume on the entire London phone system.

EnergyIreland is ranked fifth in the EU for the amount of electricity generated from wind (per capita), and we’re climbing those ranks quickly. Establishing Ireland’s energy strategy will not only provide thousands of short and medium term jobs, it will also create an entirely new export industry sustaining further thousands of jobs.

ManufacturingIn manufacturing, it is imperative that we broaden our capacity beyond the established industries of medical & pharma and ICT.

The possibilities are exciting; however it is absolutely critical that we act now. Other countries with significant resources are already competing with us for the chance to develop the green economy first. Whoever gains the advantage will surely keep it in the long run. We must recognise that this advantage is ours for the taking, today.

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This is an abridged version for the original version please go to http://younggreens.ie/green_economy_green_jobs

Eamon Ryan at the Young Green Convention 2008

By Eamon Ryan, Green Party’s Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

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Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day have been gushing into the seas of the Gulf of Mexico and drifting towards the US coast threatening wildlife, destroying biodiversity and the livelihoods dependent on tourism and fishing. Public outcry has been huge and even the Obama Adminitration has now come out saying that the oil spill has pointed them “in a direction that finally gives us the kind of future-oriented visionary energy policy that we so vitally need and has been absent for so long”. The recent British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst in U.S. history, has devastated the ecologically diverse, beautiful and productive coastline of the south east U.S. The region has been transformed into a cesspool and thousands of people who depend on the local natural resources for their jobs will lose their livelihoods.

The BP oil spill... The catalyst for change?

Because the visual consequence of the BP oil spill was immediate, people reacted strongly and passionately to it. And yet the damage inflicted by this pales into insignificance compared to the more elusive consequences of global climate change. Therefore, environmentalists urgently need to better illustrate the possible catastrophe of climate change so that it becomes clearly evident in people’s minds. Indeed, we often discuss scientific facts and figures but all too often forget to mention the real human consequences and find examples to which people can emotionally relate to. We need to highlight the links between climate change, BP and drilling for oil. We must make it clear that BP is not only responsible for cleaning up the mess in the Gulf of Mexico and for compensating the economic loss, but is also responsible for mining the tar sands in Canada and, most importantly, for the vast quantities of fossil fuels the corporation produces without paying for the catastrophic near future consequences. Most importantly we need to show that the climate change agenda is also the social justice agenda: the poorest in the world are the ones who eventually bare the consequences of climate change.

All these disasters are linked together and, as Greens, our mission must be to help people understand this and inspire them to take action. Part of this action

continued on the next page6

is to encourage the growth of the green economy and clean green energy free from the ecological disasters, such as the the BP oil spill, which are destroying our fragile and finite earth.

Green energy news• The European offshore wind power market grew 54% in 2009!

• €255 million was invested into the offshore wind sector through the European Union’s Economic Recovery Plan, showing that decision makers understand that offshore wind is key to Europe’s future energy supplies!

• The share of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in 2009 was 14.4%, exceeding our EU target of 13.2% by 2010 and placing Ireland firmly on track for the Green Party’s target of 15% by 2010.

• Wind energy accounted for over 10% of all electricity generation in 2009.(Source SEAI (2010) Renewable Energy in

Ireland)

• Are you on Facebook? More than 500,000 people have joined a Greenpeace campaign to get Facebook

Brown pelicans captured at Grand Isle, Louisiana, following the BP oil spill in the Gulf, 2010Photo Credit: International Bird Rescue Research Center& flickr - mindfulwalkers

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to switch from its coal powered servers to renewable sources of energy - to add your voice to this campaign go to the following link -http://tinyurl.com/33ovuwr

• The British Irish Council, set up under the terms of the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement for the various governments, to discuss matters of mutual interest held a renewable energy summit in the island of Guernsey. Guernsey politicians hosted the meeting of representatives from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey and the Isle of Man. They said sharing best practice and research into marine renewable energy had benefited them all and vowed to continue to work together to accelerate the marine renewable energy sector. Experts have said the seas around the British Isles could provide up to 50% of Europe’s renewable energy.

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