We are demanding that Northern Ireland successfully implements a green recovery out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

We are the Youth Climate Association Northern Ireland (YCANI). We are a youth-led organisation campaigning for climate action in Northern Ireland. We facilitate youth climate strikes in Belfast, Omagh, Derry, Portrush, Enniskillen and Newry, bringing together young people to fight the climate crisis.

YCANI is organising a new campaign called: #GreenRecoveryNI to put pressure on NI’s elected officials and government to consider the climate in NI’s COVID-19 recovery plans. Before the pandemic, our government's policy and attitude around the climate crisis was woeful and amounted to virtually nothing, while the planet was speeding ahead with mass extinction. We demand that the breaks are pulled on this. We demand a future. 

A green recovery is:

- An investment in green industry, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure such as transport.
- The creation of jobs in the green industry and through a just transition, help existing workers from polluting industries transfer their skills to the green industry.
- Improving pre-existing green spaces and establishing new ones.
- Withholding bailouts to polluters who promise no strong commitment to transition to green ways in the near future (5-8 years, with the process starting within the next year to keep in line with science of the 2018 IPCC Special Report).

The IPCC Special Report on Climate Change (2018) stated that, “Global warming is likely to reach 1.5C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.” This report also stated we had 12 years to actually make a difference in the battle against the climate crisis, and that beyond that it would be too late. That report was published in 2018. It is now 2020, two years later. Two years wasted in the climate action race. We demand a future. 

There is an incorrect belief that the climate crisis does not affect us. While the climate crisis hits some areas harder than others, we will still see the effects here in Northern Ireland. In Belfast, for example, we have a serious air pollution problem. 28 sites tested across the city showed dangerously high and illegal levels of air pollution (research by Green Party NI). Belfast is second worst in the UK for PM2.5 (Particulate Matter) levels, which is considered one of the most threatening variants of air pollution (research by Centre for Cities). This has clear health effects, which we are already seeing in the city with 1 in 24 Belfast deaths now linked to air pollution (research by Centre for Cities).

However, we are starting to see the other side of our current situation, and governments around the world are drawing up their recovery plans for our post-COVID-19 world. At the same time, companies in carbon-heavy industries are currently appealing to our governments for bailouts. The problem is they are offering no green promises in return, no commitment to a shift to green industry, no commitment to invest in our future. We are watching another crisis being funded when we haven't even recovered from this global health crisis yet. We are watching our future being taken away by our politicians that most of us can’t vote for yet. We have a chance to rebuild society in a sustainable, long term way and we don't have another choice. We demand a future. 

This campaign - #GreenRecoveryNI - is asking for a green recovery from COVID-19. It is asking for an investment in green industry, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure such as transport. We have an opportunity here as a country, to look at all aspects of how we operate, how we live, and to move forward after COVID-19 to create a better, greener Northern Ireland. It is a cry for help from the youth. The adults who will choose whether or not to listen to us now, won't face the consequences of their actions. We will face them. We demand a future. We demand to have a say in the world our children will grow up in. 

The Assembly has declared a climate emergency, but we need them to act upon this declaration. So far, they have acted as though they lied to us with that declaration to get us to go back to school. However, we will do no such thing. We deserve more than an empty promise. We demand a future.

 

We are famous for our green spaces, and yet our government allows the exploitation of our environment. The hills of the Sperrins in county Tyrone are under threat. They have not been protected by our governing body or it’s institutions. In the 1980s geochemical surveys confirmed the fact that there were large gold deposits in the hills of Tyrone and 30 years later the Canadian mining company Dalradian seeks to invade this area of outstanding natural beauty.

The detrimental effects to the environment are clear. The original mining process was to include a cyanide processing plant. If this made its way into our water supply 1000s of people would be affected. On the13 August 2019, Dalradian announced that it no longer plans to use cyanide, that the ore would instead be exported for treatment elsewhere, but did not mention where. Putting the use of cyanide aside, in a similar mining operation in County Monaghan, at least three sinkholes opened resulting in the closing of local primary schools, roads and led to a lack of accessibility to businesses. These mines will affect all of our lives. Dalradian still maintains that the impact would be minimal. The Assembly must take action to prevent this destruction of an area of outstanding natural beauty. We demand a future.

After any event that causes the economy to suffer, investment is needed to help it recover. We need to make sure this is steered in a new way for a greener future. This is vital to our survival because the climate crisis is a huge threat to Northern Ireland. We can deal with it now or we can deal with it later and face more serious consequences. We will have to spend either way, but preventing a crisis is cheaper than coming back from one. Recovery efforts from environmental disasters in the past have proved to be more expensive than prevention costs (for example the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) and even then the clean up does not erase the damage done and the lives lost. 

An essential part of a green recovery is the protection of workers. We ask for this to be respected by the Assembly and local councils. Workers can be protected through a gradual, just transition from dirty to clean, green industries. This would also provide an opportunity to create new jobs in Northern Ireland. 

We are not seeing the climate crisis being dealt with the seriousness and urgency it requires. We are not seeing it being dealt with inadequately either, because to deal with something inadequately, you first have to deal with it. We must start to think about more than just our lifetimes, we must not leave our mess for our grandchildren to clean up when it is too late by then, and this must start today. 

A better, greener Northern Ireland is what the people want. This petition will act as proof and hard evidence that we can show politicians. We demand a future. Help us to achieve that, we can't do it without your help.  

We could pave the way and be an example for the rest of the world to aspire to. 

It’s up to the politicians. By signing this petition, you are putting pressure on the change makers to draw up a recovery plan that lets us come out of COVID-19 to create a better, greener Northern Ireland.