No New Gas Campaign Update

No New Gas is our campaign to prevent fossil gas lock-in. Its primary focus is on fracked gas, LNG infrastructure and new exploration licenses for oil and gas in Irish waters.

This campaign made exciting progress recently with the plans to introduce a ban on new oil and gas licenses off the Irish coast. In 2017 Ireland banned fracking, which was a ban on onshore extraction in the Republic of Ireland. Now the ban will begin to extend into the offshore, contributing to the struggle to keep fossil fuels in the ground. 

Friends of the Earth Deputy Director, Kate Ruddock, spoke on RTE News about this win, saying it’s "a huge success for climate activists. We started this journey with a ban on fracking, now we moved into the offshore. Next is to stay strong against LNG". You can watch the clip here!

In February we issued a joint statement with NUIG Human Rights Clinic and grassroots anti-fracking groups. We called on the Government to honour their Programme for Government promise to ban the importation of fracked gas. You can read the full statement here, accompanied by a legal review.

Fossil fuel extraction needs to stop in Ireland - but we want to go further than that. In particular, we need to ensure that highly polluting fracked gas is not imported into Ireland in the form of liquefied natural gas. The human rights clinic in Galway have presented a legal argument demonstrating how a ban on fracked gas can be included in the forthcoming climate bill, and we are campaigning to see that it is! You can read that legal opinion here. 
Friends of the Earth will be joining international campaigners to bring our collective concerns about fossil fuel extraction, in particular fracking, to the United Nations. Watch this space for more on that!

In recent weeks we have also submitted to an EU consultation on the future of gas and Projects of Common Interest, the TEN-E Regulation.