by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Greening communities was top of the agenda at a conference aimed at encouraging Irish families to be greener.
The conference, jointly hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government and An Taisce, was funded under the National Waste Prevention Programme.
Called “Greening Irish Communities” the event was for a broad range of people from the public, private and voluntary sectors attended to explore how to set ambitious targets for 'greening', and how public, private, voluntary, social and cultural organisations can make a positive contribution in this area and can work together towards such a common goal.
Mary Kelly, director general of the environmental protection agency, said: “Our vision is to develop a network of organisations and individuals which will work together to integrate initiatives such as green schools, green homes, green hotels, green businesses, tidy towns, and transition towns into every Irish community, big or small.
“Participants today debated how a national certification programme for green communities in Ireland might work.
“I firmly believe that the result of these activities will include real and measurable reductions in environmental impact such as reduced waste production, reduced energy consumption and a reduced carbon footprint for Ireland.”
This same urging should and must also become reality in Britain in the same way as indicated in what Mary Kelly said in her statement.
There is much talk, far too much talk, in Britain, and many other countries too, as to greening our communities, our cities, towns and villages, and businesses and government, but way too little actual action.
When it comes to small wind, for instance, and other renewable energy on a smaller scale, as in households and such, the government – especially local – generally thrown, in Britain, a spanner in the works.
If we are really serious, as a country, as those that are supposed to lead, as to going “green” we must take a leaf out of the books of other countries in the European Union, for instance, such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. But this does not seem to work in the UK for whenever one suggests any ideas from over there, so to speak, to government ministers the answer, nigh on invariably, is “this will not work in Britain”.
In other countries the waster that cannot be recycled is burned in CHP plants and no one objects, really, as people understand that this is the best for the environment and at the same time it frees them from the use of fossil fuels.
When, however, such plants are suggested in Britain the NIMBYs appear immediately, aided and abetted by the likes of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace or the Green Party, and take a vociferous stand against any such developments and they do not happen.
We just cannot go on like this and we must have those alternative sources.
Similar problems are encountered when people want to install small wind turbines, solar panel, whether for electricity or hot water, when local authorities refuse those to be put up because such installations would spoil the look of the area or a building, and such.
Our Planet is more important, one should think, than whether a small wind turbine might “spoil the look” of a listed building or the looks of a Cotswold village or such.
© 2009
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Irish communities have been urged to live more sustainably
