Update on No New Gas

No New Gas is our campaign to prevent fossil gas lock-in. Its primary focus is on fracked gas, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure and new exploration licenses for oil and gas in Irish waters.

End New Exploration Licences

We’ve been calling on the Government to honour their Programme for Government promise to introduce a ban on the issuing of new oil and gas licenses off the Irish coast.

We made exciting progress recently when the new Climate Law was amended to include a ban on new offshore exploration licenses. Unfortunately this ban only relates to new exploration licenses - so we’re continuing the fight for the ending of all oil and gas exploration in Irish waters. Further research is necessary to ascertain the most suitable policy or legislative changes that could be used to improve this ban. We will also continue to engage on this issue in the context of the Government's energy security review being undertaken this year.

Stopping Fracked Gas and LNG in Ireland

Fossil fuel extraction needs to stop in Ireland - but we want to go further than that! In particular, we need to ensure that highly polluting fracked gas is not imported into Ireland in the form of liquefied natural gas. That’s why we’ve been campaigning for the Government to honour their Programme for Government promise to ban fracked gas imports.

This campaign made some important progress in May - when the Government produced a Policy Statement to confirm that it would be inappropriate to permit the development of any LNG terminals in Ireland until after the Government’s Energy Security Review is completed. This makes it extremely unlikely that An Bord Pleanála will grant planning permission for LNG projects and should be the final nail in the coffin for them! Which is good news! But we won’t be resting until LNG projects in Ireland are dead and buried for certain - we’ll continue to analyse further developments in this area. We’ll also be working to ensure that the Government’s security review is transparent and fully informed by climate obligations.

Global Ban on Fracking

Friends of the Earth has joined forces with activists and experts from across the anti-fracking movement to call on Ireland to propose a global ban on fracking at the United Nations. You can support this campaign by signing our petition asking the Irish Government to table a resolution at the United Nations calling for a global ban on fracking.
Ireland is uniquely well-positioned to lead the effort against fracked gas. We already has a strong ban on fracking in Ireland and are well on the way to banning fracked gas imports into Ireland too! And we’ve divested our state investment fund from fossil fuel investments. Now it’s time to take our Fossil Free leadership to the world stage by campaigning for this global fracking ban!

 

 

No New Gas is our campaign to stop Ireland getting locked into fossil fuel use for decades to come - and to stop Ireland becoming an important facilitator of fracked gas transport around the globe. We’re campaigning to block the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure, such as LNG import terminals that would allow fracked gas to be imported from the US into Ireland.

No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure - and the looming spectre of data centres
Data centres have emerged as a major threat to Ireland’s climate targets and efforts to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. In the last four years data centres have gobbled up enough electricity to power 560,000 homes. Projections for their future power demands are even more alarming. Urgent intervention is needed. We’ve been raising alarm bells in the media about data centres this autumn, you might like to listen back to our director, Oisín talking about data centres on Newstalk Breakfast here and on Virgin Media’s Tonight Show here.

We also supported people to contact their TDs before the Dáil voted on an opposition Bill calling for restrictions on the development of high energy data centres and new fossil fuel infrastructure. Unfortunately the Bill was voted down by Government but our campaigning on this is only beginning - we’re determined to find a way to pause excessive data centre development and prevent the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure. We’ll also be engaging on this issue in the context of the Government's energy security review which will be the subject of a public consultation in the coming months.

Stopping Fracked Gas and Liquified Natural Gas imports into Ireland
Friends of the Earth is also working to ensure that highly polluting fracked gas is not imported into Ireland in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
This campaign has made a lot of progress - a moratorium on the development LNG terminals in Ireland is now Government policy. But we’re not resting on our laurels just yet.

In fact, we’re worried that this policy to oppose the development of LNG terminals has not been respected. An Bord Pleanála designated a proposed LNG terminal at Shannon as “strategic infrastructure” a week after the policy was introduced! And then the developers of the Shannon LNG terminal applied for planning permission. We’ve sprung into action on this issue, writing to alert Government ministers and organising a petition for people to sign calling on An Bord Pleanála to reject Shannon LNGs planning application. We hand- delivered this petition last Friday and our looking forward to getting a response soon.

Other work for a Fossil Free Future
In September we wrote to the Minister for Climate Action and the Minister for Foreign Affairs calling on Ireland to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance. This is a joint diplomatic initiative to bring countries that have ended future fossil fuel exploration together and to work towards ending all fossil fuel production. We expect big news on this at the COP26 UN Climate Talks so watch this space!
We helped publicise the launch of a new campaign to ban advertising and sponsorship by the fossil fuel industry in Europe earlier this month. You might like to read more about this in the Irish Independent here or add your name to the campaign’s petition here.