“We’re burning down our children’s home”, Chair of the Elders and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, told delegates to the inaugural Mary Robinson Climate Conference, themed “Communities Creating Change”, which took place in Ballina last week, adding: "but young people should not despair, but instead should be 'prisoners of hope'.
At the conference Mary Robinson also welcomed contributions from young climate activists including Fridays for Future, SAUTI- Galway and the Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and spoke of the importance of encouraging and facilitating intergenerational dialogue, to create climate justice for younger generations and empower them to be better community leaders and civic society members.
The need for rapid action to address the climate crisis and to empower communities to play their part were the key messages from speakers and delegates, who included Minister Eamon Ryan TD, Kevin Anderson; Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester, 18 year-old climate justice activist Saoirse Exton of Fridays for Future, Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Environment and Adele Mealey of the ?Creative Ireland Programme.
