TrewsNews

The article 'RCB rises to the challenge of climate change', published in the Church of Ireland Gazette on 6th October 2017, is one I was very happy to read. After all, this blog is about trying to get the Church of Ireland to respond to that very challenge. You could say I was astonished. I t is fair to say that the Church of Ireland has moved significantly since 2015. Back then, four of the top ten investments were in fossil fuel companies. I Pointed out this inconvenient truth at  synod in 2015 , and there has been real change. Today none of the top 10 investments are in fossil fuels and the overall percentage has dropped from 10% to 3%. Progress, but it needs to get to zero. The article mentions the  motion on climate change  that passed at General Synod 2017. It is worth a reminder of what this called for. Put simply the RCB will exclude coal and tar sands investments and continue to reduce exposure to oil and gas companies by investing in green alternativ...

A letter to the press THE publication of the Government's Clean Growth Strategy is good news for Northern Ireland. The focus on home energy efficiency, clean power, electric cars and planting new woodlands will mean jobs, lower bills and cleaner air. Offshore wind power provides an enormous opportunity for Northern Ireland. Harland & Wolff are now experts in the construction of giant offshore wind turbines. The white towers rising from the shipyard point towards a green-powered future. Recent energy auctions for offshore wind power have set "astounding" prices well below those of nuclear power and even gas. Giant battery technology that can store energy from renewables is also getting cheaper very quickly. AES Energy Storage installed the UK's largest battery at Kilroot power station in 2016. The Department for the Economy's Wind Map for Northern Ireland web page says: "Northern Ireland is regarded as having one of the greatest wind energy ...

Primates of the Anglican Church discussed the impacts and response to climate change at their recent Primates’ Meeting. Archbishops shared about the devastating impacts of hurricanes in the Caribbean, floods in Asia and Pacific islands disappearing under rising sea levels. Here are some interesting quotes from the Archbishops. The Archbishop of Southern Africa, Thabo Makgoba said, we need to  “make the linkage between social justice and climate justice.”  And “What I hope will come from this meeting is a commitment by each primate to pray for social justice issues but to look at those with the eyes of saying the climate, the environment, the earth where they are happening, ought to be cared for,” Archbishop George Takeli, the Primate of Melanesia, said, “Our stories are making the world become a very small world - that we are part of each other." "..what I begin to sense from the Primates’ Meeting is that all of us are moving towards creating a strong network to work...