Yes, Minister

My father was an environmentalist. Long, long before sustainabilty was a marketing buzz-word, before the Green Party even had a leader, nevermind one who was a minister, I found my ideals in the vast library of books that we have in our house. They cover almost all areas of environmentalism. The big, famous ones are all there, such as Silent Spring and Small is Beautiful. One of my favourites though, was The Green Guide to Ireland. I liked it becuase it was simply written, it had cartoons, I could dip in and out of it, and I may have been a bit young for some of the more intellectual tomes that littered the shelves. As I grew up I knew that the book was getting quite outdated and I dreamed of one day updating it. I looked at the picture of the author in the back of the book and wondered what he was like.

I met that author, the now minister for the Environment John Gormley yesterday. It wasn't just me and John, otherwise we could have had a nice chat about cycling, cheese and maybe climate legislation.

No, the minister's entourage of advisers and negotiators were with him. And other Irish NGO representatives were there too. There were two people from Feasta, a foundation for sustainable economics,-guys with a lot of the answers. Grian was also there, -the Irish NGO that has been working on climate policy at this level for the longest. Also present were someone from Trocaire and a missionary priest. You might not expect a development agency and a priest to be at a conference about climate change. These are the people, though who work with those suffering now. Fr Sean can speak very movingly about people in developing countries that he knows very well. People who are suffering droughts and food shortages as a result of climate change. Trocaire are now working,helping people on the ground to adapt, so that they can cope with climate change affects.

We spoke to the minister about funding for adaptation. Developing countries need money to fund their adaptation actions. Technology also needs to be transfered to these countires so that they have the same advantages as we do in averting climate disaster.

We explained to him the importance that we placed on having the IPCC figures of a 25%-40% reduction being mentioned in the final text. I spoke about the importance of deep emissions cuts being agreed to by industrialized countries. How key this is, if we are to build the trust of the developing countries, the trust that is needed if we are to have an agreement strong enough to fix this problem. We expressed our disapointment at the news that is coming form Brussels on the weak EU package. And I brought it back at the end to why I felt that Ireland needed a strong legal structure at home that commited us to reductions in greenhouse gases.

The minister listened to all we had to say and said yes. He nodded along in agreement at certain points and very occasionally made a few notes. Bascially he agrees with us. This is not a man with whom we have to start at the beginning and explain the science of climate change. Many years ago his book started with me at the beginning. But he said "you can't understand the political presure that exists in an economic downturn."

He said he thinks that we will be happy with what he says in his ministerial statement later. Sending strong signals is certainly important. But more than being happy with what he is going to say, I'd like to be happy with what he is going to DO.

He explained to us that there are two people inside him. The campaigner and the pragmatic politicain. He said that while he may want everything that we do, it is not always possible. I can understand this, but he must have been a campaigner first and the pragmatism must come as a result of the experience. It rarely works the other way around. So his campainging self decided to be here for some reason. He must think that there is something big to achieve by being in the undoubtedly difficult postion that he is in. So what is it? What is he going to achieve that makes this all worthwhile? I'm still waiting to see.

He is to host a dinner for some of us tonight so maybe I'll ask him. Or pehaps we'll just get to chat about bicycles and cheese!