Standing in the middle of a field in north Co Kerry, William Hederman is one of 20 climate change campaigners who have set up camp to protest against plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in the Shannon estuary.
Demand for LNG, often produced by fracking in the United States, has soared this year as European Union states prepare for a winter that could be largely determined by the decisions taken by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
However, Hederman, who speaks for the Climate Camp Ireland group, is insistent. The Shannon LNG terminal would do nothing to help Ireland’s short-term energy needs this winter, since it would not be built for five years at least, even if it gets planning permission.
“Big companies with the help of governments are driving us towards a climate catastrophe,” Mr Hederman said, adding that the fossil fuel industry was “exploiting the war in Ukraine” to push the case for an LNG terminal in the State, and others elsewhere in the EU.
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The “climate camp” in a field beside Saleen Pier looking out at Carrigafoyle Castle, is the third on the island, following protests in 2009 in Offaly, about the existence of peat-burning power stations; and one set up to oppose plans to build a road in Tyrone in 2010.
The camp will exist for a week. Tents were erected yesterday, while there will also be music, céilí, poetry, a herbal plants walk, and a forest school organised by people “from across Ireland”. It will be “a co-created, democratically organised space — everyone who takes part is involved in making it happen,” said the environmental group, who hope that hundreds will have visited by the end of the week.
A series of workshops on fossil fuels, fracking and LNG will be held, while training for those interested in “direct action” protests over climate change will also be given. Workshops will also be held on the dangers posed by data centres, the need for solidarity with immigrants and the need for community housing.
The proposal for an LNG terminal, and a power station with jetties and other facilities alongside the estuary at Ballylongford, is the second such proposal in a decade and is currently before An Bord Pleanála.
‘Propaganda and spin’
The region is at the heart of the State’s energy debate. Wind turbines are becoming increasingly unpopular in Kerry, following years of expansion, while the ending of coal burning at Moneypoint tops climate campaigners’ demands.
Climate Camp Ireland is in no doubt that a Shannon LNG terminal would increase the State’s carbon emissions, while it dismisses the claims made by the developers, New Fortress, that fracked gas will not be used in any plant built in the estuary as “propaganda and spin”.
“Shannon LNG will increase Ireland’s emissions massively,” said Mr Hederman, who says local hopes that such a plant would bring well-paid, secure jobs will be dashed. Terminals elsewhere offer “very few” jobs, he said.
Local opinion is divided. Listowel native Eoghan Harris, a member of the environmental group Future Generations Kerry, said New Fortress bought fracked gas produced in Pennsylvania and other parts of the US.
Secure energy supply lines could be created in Ireland, he said, though he accepted that local communities should be better consulted about wind turbines built onshore. The ownership of many wind farms by big corporations was also “problematic”, he said.
In nearby Tarbert, some people have other opinions, however. In the Bridewell cafe, local man Teddy Griffin, who worked on oil rigs all over the world, reflects on the promises from the State for the Tarbert-Ballylongford land bank since the 1950s.
“The TDs turned enough sods they’d have a field ploughed,” Mr Griffin said, looking back on a series of unrealised proposals by Shannon Development and other State agencies for the lands and the deep waters off them.
“We are all very disappointed. We know what we want and the potential is enormous. All we want to do is a government to decide and to have the will and the vision to make things happen,” he said.
The LNG terminal plan had been supported by 1,200 signatures, said Mr Griffin, who is worried about winter energy supplies. In preparation, he has “two or three” oil lamps put aside: “It’s a reality now. It’s a distinct possibility,” he said.