When they opened the House of Manannan some years ago (then) President of Ireland Mary Robinson ‘did the honours’. Perhaps the Manx government should have Mary back again to ‘put some spine in them’ over the climate change agenda.
After all when it comes to International moral political heavyweights Mary is up there with the front runners and she even has a Foundation named after her dedicated to spreading the climate justice message – did you know that?
Additionally forget Katowice, Mary was out of the trap a month ago addressing a an event in Trinity College Dublin, co-hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs and the Embassy of France in Ireland.
Mary as an article on her climate change credentials does not mince her words about politicians and political will she told the Trinity conference:
“We’re not getting political leadership, particularly, on [climate change] because it’s not an issue and because there are in fact lobbies that don’t want this to become an issue,” and went on:
“We know that at the moment what is committed by governments is not enough. It will have us on a trajectory to about three degrees Celsius – pretty catastrophic. Where are we going to get the real push that the policies become really serious about moving ahead?”
Mary Robinson is restrained about Donald Trump simply saying that he is ‘not helping’ but reserves her real criticism for the business community or those within it who slow the climate change agenda.
In terms of the mood for change she believes it should come from the grass roots that should be mood music for our own recently formed climate change coalition. Here’s a quote from Siliconrepublic:
‘While Robinson is keenly aware of the need for political leadership on the climate change issue, what she strongly advocates for is bottom-up public pressure. She believes that individual shifts in behaviour, however small, contribute to an overall consciousness raising that will drive the public to seek action from governments. “Governments will hear that and need to respond more urgently,” she said. “If we can get enough people on that first step, then I think we’ll get voters calling for [it].”
In an interesting stance on small Island communities and their impact in the debate she makes an pertinent observation on the zero omissions objective saying:
“Have you heard the EU say this? Have you heard Ireland say this, properly or effectively? No,” she said. “Actually, small island states are saying it. The Marshall Islands made that commitment. Fiji either has made or is about to make that commitment because they’re desperate. They’ve got an urgency that we haven’t quite fully felt.”
Here’s a link for the Mary Robison Foundation – Climate Justice site:
Also a link for the Siliconrepublic source article in full:
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/…/mary-robinson-climate-cha…
Bernard Moffatt
Assistant General Secretary
Celtic League
