DCC are an independent, voluntary group lobbying local and national government to bring about improved conditions for cyclists and greater recognition of the benefits of cycling. They were instrumental in getting the 30km/h speed limit put in place in Dublin and have been very supportive of the introduction of the Dublin Bikes. They have been working both behind the scenes and in the media spotlight since 1993. They are represented on the Transportation “Strategic Policy” (or policy forming) committees in Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Councils and were nominated as one of the consultative bodies during the preparation of the government’s National Cycle Policy Framework.
A collaborative action research project led by UCD’s School of Geography in collaboration with arts organisation Common Ground, artist Seoidín O’Sullivan and event facilitators Connect the Dots. It will take place across Dublin 8 from 2019 – 2020 and is funded by the EPA. Mapping Green Dublin’s first task is to map the span and territories of trees and green space across Dublin 8, identifying their location and quality, identifying green space deficits and future needs.
In the end the transfers all fell the right way and we have a new green T D for Dublin South Central – thanks to all who trusted us!
The moment of election!Selfie after signing on to 33rd DailCourtesy The Irish Times Election Results Supplement 11 Feb 2020
Now the real work begins: Housing, Health, Education, Jobs – all wrapped up in Climate Change
“I think that air pollution is the most serious one because it would affect everyone indiscriminately. There is no way to avoid it, there is no element of luck involved.”
PATRICK COSTELLO is the Green Party candidate for the Dublin South Central constituency in next month’s election to Dail Eireann. We’re looking for your first preference #1 vote.
Raised, educated, living and working in the Rathgar/ Rathmines/ Ranelagh area. After attending school, Cosi studied psychology in UCD and received a masters in social work from Trinity. A decade working with vulnerable communities, most recently as a Child Protection Social Worker, has given hands-on experience of the tough circumstances affecting families across our locality at present. Ten years of volunteering have shown that it takes involvement to build a community and hard work to make things better.
Cosi & Hazel by the Liffey
Elected to Dublin City Council in 2019, Cosi represents the Kimmage-Rathmines Ward and is a member of the ‘Traffic & Transport SPC’. For the Green Party, Cosi is the ‘Spokesperson for Transport’. He is active in Dublin Cycling campaigns to create a joined up network of safe, direct cycle ways across the city connecting homes, shops, schools, work and play
‘Late night LUAS’ in Nassau St Dublin. Commit to 5-year Plan to build the Underground Metro now. Build Now, Save later. Repeat in Cork, Galway.
Climate change and bio-diversity loss is hitting harder and accelerating faster than many people predicted. For younger constituents – environmental issues are even more pressing and top their list of concerns both in the short and long term.
We need to reduce our overall energy demand and we believe it is possible with a combination of technological advances, regulatory decisions and positive behavioural change to meet European targets. Instead of asking “Can we afford to take climate action?”, we need to be asking “Can we afford not to?”
Postering City Streets in January 2020
Overruns in Health spending, delays in the delivery of the National Children’s Hospital, and ever-increasing waiting lists have seriously harmed the welfare of patients and service users, as well as hitting people in their pockets. We believe that health policy is best addressed through cross-party consensus and therefore support the Sláintecare plan and commit to adequately funding healthcare reform through that framework
We want to invest in clean public transport, walking and cycling at a much higher rate and give commuters viable alternatives to driving private cars.
We have a long-term vision for housing for the 21st century – warm, comfortable and efficient homes in sustainable, active communities supported by excellent travel and transport options
Join Dublin Cycling for the #LiffeyCycle to send the message that Dublin’s future is a healthy, liveable, people-friendly city.
We consider that sustainable economic and welfare policies are the best and most effective manner in which to achieve social justice into the future. Citizens and residents of Ireland can no longer be conceived of as merely economic units within a market structure. We recognise the value of caring, of community activism and commit to the right of all people to fulfill their basic economic needs.
The next decade is critical. There’s a mammoth task ahead, but the Irish people have long been ahead of the politicians in their desire to face up to the climate & biodiversity crises we face.
Door-to-door Canvasing Crumlin 19th January 2020
We CAN do this, but we need YOUR help to make this a #GreenDecade. #wantgreenvotegreen. We need you and your family & friends to vote Costello, Patrick #1
Pease contact me directly and let me know whether you share these objectives and if you would be interested in working with me to make them happen. Councillor Patrick Costello Richard O’Carroll Room, City Hall, Dublin 2 Work mobile: 0879431494 Work: patrick.costello@dublincity.ie
PATRICK COSTELLO is the Green Party candidate for the Dublin South Central constituency. Remember “Cosi is deadly!”
Raised, educated, living and working in the Rathgar/ Rathmines/ Ranelagh area. After attending school, Cosi studied psychology in UCD and received a masters in social work from Trinity. A decade working with vulnerable communities, most recently as a Child Protection Social Worker, has given hands-on experience of the tough circumstances affecting families across our locality at present. Ten years of volunteering have shown that it takes involvement to build a community and hard work to make things better.
Elected to Dublin City Council, Cosi represents the Kimmage-Rathmines Ward. For the Green Party, Cosi is the ‘Spokesperson for Transport. He is active in Dublin Cycling campaigns to create a joined up network of safe, direct cycle ways across the city connecting homes, shops, schools, work and play
Smart planning of services and public facilities can improve our quality of life and strengthen our Irish community taking the best of European practices.
Transparency, sustainable and prosperous growth are needed more than ever as our country responds to changing times caused by the global Climate Emergency.
The next decade is critical. There’s a mammoth task ahead, but the Irish people have long been ahead of the politicians in their desire to face up to the climate & biodiversity crises we face.
We CAN do this, but we need YOUR help to make this a #GreenDecade. #wantgreenvotegreen. We need you and your family & friends to vote Costello, Patrick #1
Please contact me directly and let me know whether you share these objectives and if you would be interested in working with me to make them happen.
Councillor Patrick Costello
Richard O’Carroll Room, City Hall, Dublin 2
Work mobile: 0879431494
Work: patrick.costello@dublincity.ie
Congratulation to Joe O’Brien on winning the Dublin Fingal by-election. And to the three less successful Green Party candidates and the hundreds of tireless canvassers who walked miles for a better future.
There are two types of people in the world – people who look to the past and people who look to the future. There is a bright future beyond the despair and chaos highlighted daily in the media. Populations in Europe, America, even China, are getting older. Adults reminisce about happy days and some students are fearful of change, that their futures will be poorer than their parents. Politicans look to past mistakes and are paralysed into doing nothing. Many business leaders look to a short term future, hoping to get rich quickly in case the music stops. People electing nationalist, populist parties that promise no change, no future; no risk, no reward.
I despair of World politics. Words are cheap. Politicans, Business & Trade Unions can destroy the future by inaction or by ideology, “What we Have, We Hold”, “Kick the can down the road”, “Don’t touch the Nettles”. Though the realists say there are “no voters, no jobs on a dead planet”. Yesterday I went to a church service which was led by young people, many economic migrants, and am sad I might not see the future these children will create together. Greta Thunberg keep pushing.
An article in the Guardian newspaper reports: ” In September alone 10,551 refugees and economic migrants arrived in Greece, the highest in a single month since the 2016 EU-Turkish deal”, hoping for a better future. “Cyprus has experienced a surge, with most travelling into the partitioned island’s EU-south through the Turkish-occupied north. Cyprus outstrips all other EU states in having the highest number of asylum applications per capita“. Rather than tear-down the border fence, talk is now of increasing border policing. Most EU & American peoples are ignoring reality, the history of their own past refugees and rejecting the future that these highly-motivated people will create. Building fences & moats are a waste of money. Can individuals adopt a migrant to free a EU-government-created logjam?
Every new Irish government will be affected by the €205,000,000,000 past governments have borrowed and an EU cap on future borrowing. Much of that borrowing was wasted, but it can’t be a stop on the future – no risk, no reward. Future borrowings, guarantees, public-private-partnerships, housing associations, etc must be invested for the common good – housing, underground city rail transport, electrify rural rail, insulation. Think of the country as 1 connected place like a 5-million-head city, and not 50 independent competing silos. Stop talking; Decide, consult, plan, consult, adjust plan, BUILD, fine-tune. No more Boom, Bust. Just Build for our Future!
SEASONAL GREETINGS AND A BETTER GREENER 2020
Metro for a one- million-person city. Turn it anti-clockwise. Build it one line at a time. Start with an extented, planned DART Underground Cross-city line – Fingal to Clondalkin!A Global problem – Find the European solution.
A motion was put to Policy Council in October 2019: “ In view of the Government objective of having 10% of all vehicles in Ireland being zero emission vehicles by 2020 it is proposed that all new public buildings should be required to install free to use electric charging points, with a minimum of 4 parking spaces with two charge points with dual connectors. This applies to all new schools, primary healthcare centres, leisure centres, museums, post offices, garda stations, etc”
I felt this motion neither ambitious or radical enough. Whether 10% EVs by 2020 or 50% EVs by 2030 (Page 88, Climate Action Plan 2019), Ireland’s EV infastructure is woefully behind current demand let alone future demand, apart from the barely adequate infastructure in the Dublin commuter belt, and Cork, Galway and Belfast travel corridors . To meet the Fine Gael 2030 target means selling 100,000 electric cars (EV) every year from 2019 to achieve the trickle-down effect of 50% EV ownership by 2030, an impossible target without the infastructure. Reading the Green Party transport policy, widespread ownership of EVs will be required in the short-term, especially in low density population areas in central and western areas, with several rapid 50 kWh+ EV chargers in every population centre. Slow charging points (3.5 to 22 kWh) are too slow for public use, encouraging all-day blockers. EV owners need a charge as fast as a coffee, burger or comfort break.
Green Party Transport policy principles: Firstly we want to create urban, suburban and rural places that are not dominated by cars. Our policy emphasises public transport for public good; shared transport methods use less energy than individual cars or other vehicles and improve the well-being of commuters. We pay particular attention to the fact that not everyone in our society who wishes to work can afford a private car, and children and many people with disabilities are often excluded. The availability of public transport for activities not connected with work also serves to improve social cohesion. Secondly , commuting needs to be improved, and cities developed in ways that reduce long journeys: our transport policy needs to be linked with planning strategy, so that more people can live closer to their work, or can commute in a reasonable amount of time.
At present, all of Ireland’s oil is imported. Oil imports cost an estimated €4.4 billion in 2014, 77% of the total cost of energy imports (SEAI). The Green Party policy is to phase out fossil fuels, switch public services (buses, coaches and trains) to electrical energy, and eventually run all our transport (cars & trucks, buses & trains), while reducing demand through ‘joined-up’ planning, on domestic wind, water and solar energy, saving Ireland over €4 billion annually. Win Win or What?
When you’re shopping for a fossil-fueled car, you pay attention to distance per litre or mpg. For plug-in vehicles, energy consumption is measured in kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometres/miles (kWh/100 km/miles), such as 15 kWh per 100 km. Fossils need petrol pumps, range is based on size of fuel tank and location of pumps. EVs need EV battery-chargers, range is based on size of battery & speed of chargers. Energy is stored in the battery as DC, low-speed (1-22 kWh) pumps deliver AC energy which the cars’ on-board converter converts to DC, so it is slow, hours or overnight home chargers. A fast, rapid or High Performance (HPC) (50-350 kWh) pump delivers energy as DC so it goes straight to battery, meaning quicker with less time stopped, maybe time for a coffee, burger or comfort break. The quickest HPC pumps, with suitable cars, provide a charge to 80% in minutes; over 80%, all pumps slow to avoid damaging the battery. Time is Money!
Photo from Germany. Ionity HPC ‘tap & pay’ chargers in Gorey, Cashel and Athlone, with more on way. Allowing space for subsidised ESB chargers in other places
My view is that a switch to replace fossil-fueled vehicles with electric/ hydrogen-fueled vehicles on a one-to-one basis is not required. The global trend is that urban dwellers will use public transport (trains, light-rail, buses), EV taxis or rent E-vehicles by the hour/day. All private vehicles will be restricted in town centres. Multible EV charging points on inter-city routes and in rural towns will accommodate those requiring transport. Rather than copy reports I suggest browsers read the Dutch company Fastned investment prospectus, especially Chapter 6 The Market, pages 51-62. https://cdn.fastnedcharging.com/uploads/documents/fastned-eur-15.000.000-bond-programme.pdf
Many delegates to The Green Party Convention spoke strongly that reliance by Governments and politicans on the capitalist market forces and consumers to meet the challenges of Climate Change would not only fail but accelerate the impending end of life as we know it. After all, the IPCC say we only have twelve or less years to start making the Government-sized decisions that might save our live on the Earth. Even Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, intends to put forward a plan towards a reduction of , not 30%, not 40% BUT 55% of greenhouse gases by 2030. Get your finger out LEO!!!!!
The Swedish thinker and writer Gunnar Rundgren believes that ‘competition, not consumption, drives global destruction. As new ideas and inventions enter the market, for a time a company can have real growth both in production and labor because the total production increases a lot quicker than the labor productivity. Sooner or later markets get saturated and the pressure of competition increases. Companies have to focus more on marketing, productivity and lower costs. Those made redundant through rationalization get a job in a new growing industry and the story is repeated. Increased productivity also leads to increased wages and in combination with lower prices to a tremendous growth in consumption.
“There is really no way around this on an aggregate level. And it explains very well why total resource use is increasing despite all advances in efficiency. For companies in competitive markets, it is really not possible to stand still producing the same product. Customers change slowly, but you have to increase productivity and innovate in order to survive. And capital owners of various sorts will demand rent on their invested capital or reschedule it to other businesses. It is all part and parcel of the capitalist market economy. Some argue that a non-capitalist market economy would be different, but I (Gunnar) have as yet not seen any convincing theory for how such a society would look like and there are no relevant historical examples to look at either. ‘ Increases in labor productivity through competition lead to increased use of resources and increased consumption through cheaper goods. “
“The real driver of economic growth and resource use can be found in the conditions of production, and there, consumer demand plays a minor role. Calls for green growth or sustainable consumption will not change these fundamental conditions. Radical cuts in individual consumption, incomes and wage labor can change the game however.”
By now, most environmentalists have come across the term circular economy.
It’s sexy, it’s cool, and it makes us feel like we can have our cake
and eat it too—as long as the cake is made of sustainably grown
ingredients, cooked and transported with renewable energy, and any
leftover cake is composted to enable the making of future cakes.
But advocates of the circular economy rarely grapple with a central truth: the circular economy depends on a significant and sustained period of economic degrowth. Instead they tend to focus on innovations that deliver efficiencies and unlock new economic opportunities.
But the global data reveal this isn’t enough. According to the ecological footprint, globally we’re using the resources of 1.6 planets. The USA uses 5 Earths; Ireland, Russia, Germany use 3.2 Earths; countries like Iraq, Educador & Indonesia use a fraction over 1 Earth. This calculation is probably an understatement because it is based on a few measureable annual statistics and doesn’t count the degradation of soils, water contamination or the effects of species decline (like the humble honey bee). This is undermining Earth’s systems and the ability of humans (and countless other species) to survive and thrive. To get back within planetary limits, we will need to shrink the global economy by at least 37 percent – and realistically by much more in some countries if we expect to start healing the decades’ worth of damage our overconsumption has wreaked on the planet.
Degrowth acknowledges this, but Circular Economy advocates and designers tend to ignore or deny this reality. But shrinking material and energy demand is a prerequisite for a circular economy that functions within Earth’s limits.
There are at least three reasons for this. First, if production levels rise as a result of circular innovations, environmental savings are negated by new production–a phenomenon called the rebound effect. Second, the circular economy’s increased reliance on bio-based materials would utilize already overtaxed agricultural and ecological capacity. Third, energy is never free. Even renewable energy brings with it significant ecological impacts. Until we right-size the global economy, we’re going to need a prolonged period of degrowth.
Thus if the circular economy is serious about making human civilization truly sustainable and meeting the Paris Climate Accord of 1.5 max global warming, it needs to marry degrowth. So what can we do? – The top four widely applicable high-impact (i.e. low emissions) actions with the potential to contribute to systemic change and substantially reduce annual personal emissions: having one fewer child (an average for developed countries of 58.6 tonnes CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) emission reductions per year), living car-free (2.4 tCO2e saved per year), avoiding airplane travel (1.6 tCO2e saved per roundtrip transatlantic flight) and eating a plant-based diet (0.8 tCO2e saved per year).
These actions have much greater potential to reduce emissions than commonly promoted strategies like comprehensive recycling (four times less effective than a plant-based diet) or changing household lightbulbs (eight times less). (Environmental Research Letters, Volume 12, Number 7); some people will work less, either shorter weeks or longer holidays, for less income once essentials were covered; reduce unnecessary travel if we can walk, cycle or use public transport, car share or use electric taxis by living near our schools or work or public transport; eating less processed and more locally grown food while avoiding food-waste; demanding our suppliers provide longterm sustainable solutions for our needs. By reducing our demands on the Earth, we help ourselves.
By marrying these two concepts in a Spiral Economy, we get a better understanding of both the journey and the destination. Degrowth is a process not an end. The circular economy—at a much smaller throughput—is the destination. As our economy shrinks, revolution after revolution, we spiral down and eventually reach the goal—a smaller and circular economy. Visualizing this, one could call the marriage of these two concepts the “Spiral Economy.”
With limited resources, government policies should prioritize curbing growth first and foremost: shortening the work week; enabling more people to lead sufficiency lifestyles in the informal, or what Juliet Schor calls the plenitude economy; and providing the basic public goods (such as local & distant public transit, libraries, and even the humble drinking fountain) that discourage more ecologically-costly private consumption. These are good places to start.
Flash floods on farmland in Lesotho
Personnally, I believe that a mixture of individual choices, government decisions and technological innovations will save civilisation, but in the next 50/100 years global life will become less predictable with unknown consequences – out of & in-season floods, droughts, heatwaves, fires, snows, frosts, population movement, wars and violence. Thank God we live on an island in the Atlantic warmed by the Gulf Stream, but ………………………….?
“I stand for investing in communities – working to ensure that they are well planned, sustainable and have space for all”
Councillor Michael Pidgeon –South West Inner City Ward(roughly from Kilmainham east to Wood Quay, bounded by River Liffey and Grand Canal)
“My vision is for a Dublin 8 which is a decent, inclusive, livable home for people who want to live in the city.”
Councillor Sophie Nicoullaud– Ballyfermot – Drimnagh Ward (Cherry Orchard east to Inchicore, Chapelizod south to Walkinstown)
“I want each member of the community and consideration for the environment placed at the centre of every decision taken by local and national governments”
TIME TO RENEW The Promise of EUROPE
CIARAN CUFFE MEP is the Green Party’s winning candidate for the European elections in Dublin
“I want to work with our European neighbours to make Dublin the best city in Europe for living, working, and raising a family. That means taming the traffic, providing decent housing that people can afford, creating quality jobs and ensuring we’ve clean air, parks and play spaces.”
