Ireland has become only the second country in the world to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.
Ireland have followed in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, becoming the second nation in the world to have officially declared an environmental and climate emergency.
Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan shared an image of the official document on his Twitter page, where you can see the exact wording of the report.
The report states that the words “shall take note of” will be substituted with “declares a climate emergency” in the report entitled ‘Climate Change: A Cross-Party Consensus on Climate Action.’
Glad Dail Eireann (in unusual circumstances) has just declared a climate & biodiversity emergency & has endorsed the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action https://t.co/M6d66BfNrq We now must act on the report, with a #GreenNewDeal delivering a #JustTransition pic.twitter.com/z31N5R9D1d
— Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) May 9, 2019
Popular activist Greta Thunberg also congratulated Ireland on the decision, asking “who is next?”.
Great news from Ireland!! Who is next?
And remember: #ClimateEmergency means leaving fossil fuels in the ground. #ClimateBreakdown #EcologicalBreakdown https://t.co/GTkyhg7Sam— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 9, 2019
Activist group Extinction Rebellion Ireland celebrated the news on their Instagram page, with a message that said “We are sending so much love and gratitude to every single person in Ireland who has done their part in making this happen.”
Eamon Ryan also welcomed the development, but warned that “declaring an emergency means absolutely nothing unless there is action to back it up. That means the Government having to do things they don’t want to do”.
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