Five Degrees of Change

 Marie Sherlock is a Labour Party senator and general election candidate for Dublin Central.  Marie has long been a member of the Labour Party and has a background as a trade unionist, so social justice is central to her vision of environmentalism. She is a huge advocate of the power of local environmental initiatives, but also wants the Labour Party to be back in government to deliver national environmental policy too.   For her policy changes, she spoke about ramping up retrofitting by taking a street-by-street approach, adopting WHO limits on air quality, and scaling up investment in wind energy.  For her personal changes, we discussed her cargo bike purchase, and reducing waste at home.  

This week’s episode is with Darren O’Rourke, Sinn Féin TD for Meath East and the party’s spokesman on Climate and Environment. O'Rourke is critical of what he calls the austerity approach to environmentalism undertaken by this government, and is proposing climate action under Sinn Féin that would be more equitable, and therefore would have greater buy in from the public   For his policy changes, he spoke about funding the green transition more fairly, use our national energy resources for public good rather than private gain, and make the energy transition more accessible to ordinary working families.  For his personal changes, O’Rourke spoke about reducing waste at home, and reducing his transport emissions.

This week’s episode is with Jennifer Whitmore, Social Democrats TD for Wicklow. Jennifer helped found the Social Democrats and was first elected as a TD in the 2020 general election, but before that she was trained in ecology and environmental law, and spent many years working in environmental protection, especially in relation to marine life. She is therefore one of the best informed and equipped TDs on environmental issues, and she has ambitions to take her knowledge into government to make a real impact.   For her policy changes, she chose to expand the climate action plan, to develop a strategic policy for data centres, and to ensure the implementation of new marine protected areas.  For her personal changes she spoke about retrofitting her home and rewilding her garden.

Roderic O’Gorman, is leader of the Green Party and Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Roderic has taken on the role of leader of the Green Party from his predecessor Eamon Ryan just as the coalition government is coming to an end. His primary task is to get as many Green Party TDs re-elected as possible, and he believes the party’s track record in government over the last few years will land with voters. For is policy changes, Roderic discussed making public transport more commuter focused, simplifying the state's retrofitting schemes, and making greater use of state land for biodiversity. For his personal changes, he discussed growing his own food and installing solar panels at home.