The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice are pleased to announce that it has joined Stop Climate Chaos – “a coalition of civil society organisations campaigning to ensure Ireland plays its part in preventing runaway climate change”.
The Coalition’s twenty-eight members include Trócaire, Friends of the Earth, An Taisce, EcoCongregation, and Christain Aid, among others. The Coalition engages in activities that seek to rally public support throughout Ireland in order to impel much-needed political action on climate change.
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis claims that “…public pressure has to be exerted in order to bring about decisive political action. Society, through non-governmental organisations and intermediate groups, must put pressure on government to develop more rigorous regulations, producers and controls” (L.S., 179). Commenting, Catherine Devitt, the environmental justice officer with the Centre, said that this new opportunity will help give strength to the environmental and climate justice voice in Ireland, as well as the work of the Centre on environmental issues.
Pope Francis reminds us that thanks to the efforts of the ecological movement, “environmental questions have increasingly found a place on public agendas and encouraged more far-sighted approaches” (L.S., 166). Since 2007, Stop Climate Chaos has played a pivotal role in raising public awareness of climate change issues, and in pushing for the establishment of a climate law in Ireland. Indeed, in late 2015, the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act was passed – placing climate policy on a statutory footing for the first time in Ireland.
More information about the Coalition can be found here: www.stopclimatechaos.ie
Photo credit: Stop Climate Chaos. A “head-in-the-stand” demonstration held by members of Stop Climate Chaos calling for government action on Ireland’s climate policy.
