Climate movement must mobilize to oppose move
People Before Profit TD and member of the Oireachtas Climate Action Committee, Bríd Smith TD, has said that if the government were to not oppose the construction of a Liquified Natural Gas terminal at Shannon it would be an act of climate sabotage.
The TD was reacting to comments by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in the Business Post where he said that the Shannon LNG terminal would not be blocked by government if the company could secure planning permission despite this being in contradiction to government policy.
The TD called on the climate movement to “oppose this signal by the Tánaiste in the strongest possible terms”. She said that these comments demonstrate the real agenda of the government which is to build LNG terminals in this country whilst at the same time saying they are standing up for the climate.
She said: “These comments are really quite shocking from the Tániaste and show us that the truth of government energy policy is to continue business as usual whilst offering only rhetorical support for climate action.
“Everyone in this country who is concerned about Ireland’s emissions and environment must stand up now and oppose this in the strongest possible terms. The climate movement now needs to up the pressure on government to categorically rule out any LNG infrastructure in this country.
“What will be a very interesting development is what Eamon Ryan and the Green Party will do about this. Will they sit back and allow Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to facilitate an act of climate sabotage or will they stand up with the climate movement in opposing this as a red line issue?”