Our call to action is to “Stop Talking, Start Planting”, motto of the world Trillion Tree Campaign, Plant-for-the-Planet. Planting a trillion worldwide this decade, a billion in Ireland. (Yes; we will still only look like some less-wooded European neighbours, e.g. Belgium with a billion more trees. Lol. Did you think this plan would block out the sun? Not so! ) Not enough we know, it will only account for 1 degree and today the Irish Times reports John Kerry at the #DublinClimateDialogues saying “If you did everything we said we would do…we’re still going to see warming of about 3.7 degrees or more.” What is the big other thing to do? 2. Decarbonise the Electricity Sector and Electrify Everything. This proposal was made back in the early 2000s by Eurelectric, using existing technology. #Easytreesie
The deadline for these submissions was this week. We had pleasure in sending in these observations, not on every single topic but on those where we have something to say!
Submission to Call for Expert Evidence – Climate Action Plan 2021
Submitted on 2021-05-17 17:27:13
About you
1 Name
Please provide your name, or the name of the organisation you are representing.:
Easy Treesie
2 Email
Please include a contact email address if you would like to receive a copy of your submission.:
orla@easytreesie.com
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Additional Information; Our blueprint for the planting of 1 billion trees in Ireland, by Dr. Gerhardt Gallagher, Technical Advisor, Tree Council of Ireland
https://youtu.be/KoiCr5jOG3c
Carbon Pricing and Cross-Cutting Issues
1 What further opportunities exist within our taxation system, beyond measures already implemented and planned, to promote emissions
reductions, either on an economy-wide basis, or in specific sectors?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Polluters to pay and good behaviour to be rewarded; simple.
It makes absolutely no sense to subsidise fossil fuels for one. Reward me for driving my zero-emission Leaf by installing more EV charge points please so that I
don’t have to wear 3 coats driving along. subsidised by petrol and diesel, ringfenced. Massively subsidise bikes, e bikes and e cars self-financed by levying the
polluters.
Tax those engaged in cattle, dairy. (A note; my mother was a mixed farmer – lots of cattle on their Fermoy farm; I know the hard life of the farmer. My proposal is to reward farmers for optimal use of the farm. I know my grandfather cut down a row of elms when the family was thrown out of a horse-drawn trap, the trees paid for a car. Time for a little reversal. We love the work done by several farmers recently as part of our project managing wastewater and slurry with trees… we encourage more such projects). Pay the same subsidy to those growing trees annually not just for 15 years.
Do not force farmers to hand their land over in perpetuity to tree cover for change of use, no wonder they hesitate. Forever is too long.
2 What supporting policies might be required to offset the impact of any taxation changes on low income households or those most at risk
from fuel poverty?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
The bike to work scheme is very seriously hampered by the volume of bike theft in Ireland. Set aside a proportion of all car parks to bike parking and have it near
the attendant if there is one as in Drury St. Car Park. Introduce a rule that all bike sales must record the bike chassis no. so that at least that number is written
down somewhere.
3 What further measures might be required in the planning system to realise the objectives of the National Planning Framework in respect
of climate action?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Follow John Fitzgerald’s advice, former chair of Climate Advisory Committee. Scrap the forest licensing process completely and allow EPA administer
infringements.
State indemnity for landowners should a tree fall on a road and kill or maim someone; there is precedent for this where state indemnifies catastrophic birth injury
for doctors. It is very rare that people are killed or maimed by trees yet our tree cover is being decimated as the insurance industry has forced landowners to cut
down anything that might ever fall down, discouraging planting in the first place of trees which affects flooding, soil erosion.
I cannot plant anything more than a bag of trees which fits on the back of my bike under existing regulations (300 trees) without waiting for a license (2.5 years
currently). I could not plant trees on my front lawn because it is bigger than .1 of a hectare without such a license. This is recognised as being ludicrous by
anyone who has it explained to them.
4 What specific additional measures might be required to promote sustainable growth in our urban centres, including to realise the
potential of a “15-minute city”?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Subsidise roof gardens. All new roofs to have solar panels/water capture/ garden potential; put our roofs to work. In Seoul they are putting park over the big roads
in the centre of the city, putting the cars underground. Yes I say. Public transport overground and bikes/pedestrians, zero-emission cars, all the dirty stuff
underground. Build a ring metro under the Dublin canals. Cable cars overhead? Separate the cycle tracks, even with a line of parked cars. Charge much much
more for car parking of petrol/diesel cars. Living over the shop was always great. Bike lanes; have them with passive observation – that new one off the North
Strand – it does not feel safe to me, very lonely, bridges for attackers to hide. Send the cars along the dangerous dark routes and keep the pedestrians and
cyclists on the nice routes. Cycling around town has got grimmer and grimmer since I was a girl, so many towering completely-empty streets of office blocks. I
used to love cycling home from town along Camden St. for example where lots of people lived around and still there were mixes of shops. Do like Paris. We used
to have a fishmonger off Grafton St., this is a chance to bring back little shops now the clothes multinationals are boarded up.
5 What specific additional measures might be required to promote sustainable growth in rural areas?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Planting 1 Billion trees by 2030 will almost bring us up to the government target of 17 per cent. We have done the maths and this can be done with only the
decision to do it. Make a virtue of necessity and avoid paying fines. Agricultural good land is not even needed for this. Ask us for our plan, announced and
outlined at our TEDxCrannTreeforIreland conference April 2021.
6 Are there further measures that the Government should take to channel private finance into low-carbon investments in Ireland?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
We have lots of sponsors willing to grow trees going to other countries (e.g. UAE project which offered us 1M euro who are now going elsewhere due to the
Forest Service paralysis).
7 Are any changes required in Ireland’s research policy to channel research funding into climate action-related topics?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Grants will pay in our case for trees, tools and promotion, the grantees do not get that volunteers can only do so much and that people working on climate action
projects at scale can only have real impact when there are salaries; very few people have a private income to do-good for any length of time. E.G. Water and
Communities board would pay for spades but not for someone to bring the spades to the planting site.
8 Is there any additional information you would like to submit in relation to Carbon Pricing and Cross-Cutting Issues?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
We are not paying the real price for so much; petrol, heating oil, bananas.
It is much cheaper – and morally superior – to grow trees than to pay carbon fines.
Electricity
1 What options are available to increase the penetration of renewable electricity beyond the 70% committed to in Climate Action Plan
2019?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Electrify everything. Reward electrifying everything.
2 What can be done to increase the uptake of offshore wind and solar PV in particular, in the context of the Programme for Government
ambition?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
3 What role does renewable gas have in the power generation sector?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
4 What role could carbon, capture and storage have in decarbonising our power sector?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
5 What other opportunities exist to support the decarbonisation of the electricity sector?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
6 What measures might be taken to improve the resilience of the electricity system to the impacts of climate change?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Agriculture, Land Use, Forestry and Marine
1 What are the opportunities to increase take-up of measures identified in AgClimatise and encourage adoption of other practices which
reduce emissions?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Restoring degraded land as we have been challenged to do by the UN Decade on Ecosystem restoration is a great opportunity; let us support this grand vision.
The business of needing an ecological assessment for trees being planted 15k away from a special area of nature conservation is unnecessarily restrictive
according to experts who have raised this matter with me. There are a host of such restrictions that do not make sense and are not by any means the norm in
neighbouring European countries, e.g. all tree-growers being treated the same regardless of the size of their planting plan. Trees purify water and yet there is a
restriction on planting close to banks of watercourses. There are great projects involving trees purifying water from cattle raising areas that would be so easy to
expand.
Adopt the tree protection template being used in Northern Ireland and the UK, a cut and paste should suffice apparently. It is a very good idea to copy what
works.
The UK kickstarted major replanting with their network of “Jubilee Forests” around a decade ago. Let us do this, building on the Millenium Forest model which
was a great success, publicly very popular. This time allow people understand not all the trees mature, thinning is required, this seemed to be the only glitch with
that visionary project.
2 What policies and measures would be needed to support farmers diversify their farm activities to include opportunities such as
bioenergy, vegetable growth, forestry, organic farming, etc?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Follow John Fitzgerald’s advice, former chair of Climate Advisory Committee. Scrap the forest licensing process completely and allow EPA administer
infringements.
Tax those engaged in cattle, dairy. Pay the same subsidy to those growing trees annually not just for 15 years.
Do not force farmers to hand their land over in perpetuity to tree cover for change of use, no wonder they hesitate. Forever is too long.
State indemnity for landowners should a tree fall on a road and kill or maim someone; there is precedent for this where state indemnifies catastrophic birth injury
for doctors. It is very rare that people are killed or maimed by trees yet our tree cover is being decimated as the insurance industry has forced landowners to cut
down anything that might ever fall down, discouraging planting in the first place of trees which affects flooding, soil erosion.
I cannot plant anything more than a bag of trees which fits on the back of my bike under existing regulations (300 trees) without waiting for a license (2.5 years
currently). I could not plant trees on my front lawn because it is bigger than .1 of a hectare without such a license. This is recognised as being ludicrous by
anyone who has it explained to them.
Planting 1 Billion trees by 2030 will almost bring us up to the government target of 17 per cent. We have done the maths and this can be done with only the
decision to do it. Make a virtue of necessity and avoid paying fines. Agricultural good land is not even needed for this. Ask us for our plan, announced and
outlined at our TEDxCrannTreeforIreland conference April 2021.
By backing our Easy Treesie – Crann – Tree Council of Ireland joint project where we have planted over 220k trees in 2 years with Irish communities to reach 1M
by 2023 and then scale up hearts and minds are being won over which makes it easier to get past the current wave of misinformation prevalent. E.g. many people
criticize tree farms; David Attenborough points out that woodlands and forests are needed, so are tree farms. Otherwise where do we get our building wood,
paper etc. It makes no sense that we are such a great tree growing country and that we have to import so much wood due to our lack of the will to “stop talking
start planting”. Of all countries the potato famine has taught us the dangers of a monoculture and our current grass monoculture is obviously not ideal.
Remember that there are many landowners who can plant trees as well as farmers; institutions, sports clubs, schools for example.
3 What can be done to maximise the use of manure and silage as feedstock for biomethane generation in closed digesters and inject into
the gas grid to offset natural gas?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
4 What specific measures can be taken in agriculture, forestry and land use to adapt to climate change?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Plant a billion trees with us. We are collaborating with the Local Authorities, the Tree Council, the GAA, Tidy Towns groups, schools etc. etc. in our Easy Treesie –
Crann Project. It is fun.
5 What can be done to increase sequestration through forestry (afforestation, extended rotations, and improved forest management)?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
See above. Reward, support and cheer on tree planting. If you tried to design a system to reduce tree cover, which is happening now as we slide back from 11
per cent to 10.5 apparently, Ireland could not improve on its current system.
Decide to do it. Contact us, we have the roadmap, 1B do-able by 2031. Easy Treesie.
We are working with ETZ Zurich and the global trillion tree campaign to restore 1T trees to the world tree canopy this decade. It is all being mapped on the UN
Tree Counter at Plant-for-the-Planet in collaboration with Sales Force, part of a global initiative to bring down global temperature by 1 degree C which will not
solve the climate crisis but will buy time while other solutions are worked on.
6 What opportunities are there to rehabilitate our peatlands and wetlands, and what can be done to realise these opportunities?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
7 What measures would support increased sustainable management of grasslands, including those areas on drained organic soils?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
8 What opportunities exist for increased use of cover crops, incorporating straw into tillage and for the application of regenerative
agriculture practices? How can farmers be supported to take up these practices?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
9 What sort of role could Ireland’s marine environment (lakes, seas) have in delivering climate mitigation? What are the building blocks
that need to be put in place to support the role of the marine environment in climate mitigation (e.g. a regulatory framework, measurement
and accounting rules)?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
10 What other opportunities exist to support the decarbonisation of the agriculture, land-use and marine sectors?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Public Sector Leading by Example
1 What opportunities exist for the public sector to step up its climate ambition?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Joining the world trillion tree campaign, planting 1 b trees by 2031, we have the plan.
2 What sort of practical changes would you expect the public sector to make in leading and delivering Ireland’s climate ambition?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Carrot and stick approach works well, lots of rewards for good public behaviour. e.g. all public cars, fleets to be electric, electric bikes, schools with heat pumps,
district heating, remove all subsidy for fossil fuel and gas facilities.
3 How can the public sector support wider society to change? In the short-term, medium-term, long-term?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
4 What are the biggest barriers for the public sector in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how can they be overcome?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
5 What other opportunities exist to support the decarbonisation of the public sector?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
6 What practical steps should the public sector take to adapt to climate change?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Just Transition
1 Which regions, sectors, or industries do you believe will be most adversely affected by climate policy in Ireland and over what
timeframe?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
2 What types of supporting interventions should be considered by the Government to address the specific areas identified?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
3 What specific further measures should Government undertake in order to realise the benefits of the low carbon transition, including in
relation to supporting the development of low carbon sectors of the economy, including employment in these sectors?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
4 What specific investments should be considered to support a just transition in Ireland?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
5 How should the State finance just transition initiatives and investments?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
6 What changes should be considered in Ireland’s social welfare system to support population cohorts that might be more adversely
affected by the low carbon transition?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
7 Are there specific issues for consideration in Ireland’s further education, training and skills system?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
Establish green jobs in the forest sector.
8 What other issues should be considered by the Government to inform just transition policy in the 2021 Climate Action Plan?
Please provide details in the text box provided:
9 What additional supports could be considered for regions that are most at risk from the physical impacts of climate change?
Easy Treesie 