Ireland joins ";Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance"; during COP26 Climate Talks

Ireland has become a member of the first diplomatic initiative to phase out fossil fuel extraction

Today at the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow, Ireland has joined the world’s first diplomatic initiative focused on keeping fossil fuels in the ground, established by Denmark and Costa Rica. Called the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, (BOGA) the initiative brings together countries that have taken steps to ending new licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration and production. It is the first such initiative to recognise the need for governments to manage the phase out of fossil fuel production in order to respond to the climate crisis and align with Paris Agreement commitments.

The BOGA will seek to address a clear process to phase out oil and gas production for both developed and developing countries. It will provide a forum for shared dialogue in order to support countries in their energy transition, particularly those most reliant on fossil fuels. At today’s launch, Ireland, together with Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Greenland, Québec, Sweden and Wales, will join this alliance as full members.

Jerry Mac Evilly, Head of Policy at Friends of the Earth Ireland said:

“The establishment of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and Ireland's participation is hugely positive. Ireland has taken important steps in recent years to phase out fossil fuels, from ending new oil and gas exploration, to banning onshore fracking. However with the new alliance we are now finally seeing domestic progress being reflected in foreign policy. The fossil fuel era must be brought to an end and this means leaving fossil fuels in the ground. This new alliance is an opportunity for Ireland to show leadership and end the reckless expansion of oil and gas at home and abroad."

“After having raised the importance and benefits of the Alliance with Ministers Ryan and Coveney earlier in October, Friends of the Earth welcomes that the Irish Government has committed to being a leader on the urgent need to phase out oil and gas production and prevent fossil gas lock-in. Ireland has sent an important message to the world that fossil fuel production is not supported and a just transition to a zero-carbon society is now the priority.

"An important next step must be preventing any oil and gas development from existing exploration and extraction licences in Irish waters in line with the recent analysis by the International Energy Agency that permitted no new oil and gas field development. It is also important that Government builds on recent policy which introduced a moratorium on the development of LNG and fracked gas imports and takes steps to make this a permanent ban.”

ENDS

Notes

• See Friends of the Earth’s October letter to Ministers Ryan and Coveney here - https://www.foe.ie/assets/files/pdf/20211004_minister_ryan_-_ireland_and_beyond_oil_and_gas_alliance_-_friends_of_the_earth.pdf
• See further information on Friends of the Earth’s call on the Irish Government to join BOGA here. https://www.foe.ie/blog/2021/11/04/friends-of-the-earth-calls-on-irish-government-to-join-the-beyond-oil-and-gas-alliance-at-cop26/
• See further information on the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance here - https://beyondoilandgasalliance.com/
• The Irish Government introduced legislation to prevent new licences for oil and gas exploration in Irish waters in July this year.
• A year ago Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin produced a letter to their Green Party counterparts which noted "Both of our parties accept that as we move towards carbon neutrality, it does not make sense to build new large scale fossil fuel infrastructure such as liquefied natural gas import terminals".
• There is already a legislative ban on fracked gas in Ireland since 2017. There is also legislation in place to make the state investment fund pull its money out of fossil fuels.
• The International Energy Agency in their recent analysis of achieving net zero emissions globally by 2050 concluded that “beyond projects already committed as of 2021, there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development”