Aside from the landmark Climate Bill for Northern Ireland passing and some new electric buses - this year has been a major let down for the climate, environment and biodiversity in Northern Ireland.
There’s still no clean air strategy to prevent the hundreds of deaths here from breathing in toxins.
Water pollution from sewage and farm effluent is mounting - with no end in sight or even proper fines for the perpetrators.
Read more: 3 tips to help NI wildlife survive winter
We’re still not building future-proof homes. There’s been no real move towards any major schemes to retrofit homes and help people to cut their energy bills.
Stormont is still allowing gas and oil boilers to be fitted in new builds - solar panels and ground source heat pumps are optional even though we know they’ll massively reduce the country’s carbon footprint and costs.
The roads are filled with gas-guzzling SUVs - and there’s still no real push towards transforming public transport so it allows people a real choice between climate friendly transport options or buying a car.
Our EV charging network leaves a lot to be desired and the grants for making the move towards electric have been cut to within an inch of their life.
Then there’s the abysmal failure of government to follow advice from the Climate Change Committee.
They say we need to reduce meat consumption in this wee place by a third - not that Stormont has taken any real heed and is still facilitating livestock growth at the expense of nature.
Government departments and councils are still using nature harming pesticides to stop weed growth.
There’s been no real movement towards a Forest Service that protects our woodlands for nature, instead of planting biodiversity-wrecking fir trees to grow and chop down for money.
We’re still allowing trees to be chopped down, even when we know how important they are.
In some cases, it’s government contractors doing the cutting despite pleading public campaigns.
It’s impossible for people to find out if those felling trees - and even whole forests in some cases - have a tree felling licence as we can’t access that information.
Sheep still cover the mountains - even though we know they eat everything in sight, preventing rewilding.
Intensive pig and chicken farming is growing, despite the impact on the animals and the huge amounts of waste they create which is then spread across the countryside in sometimes illegal ways.
We’re sending two-week old calfs on long journeys to be slaughtered in other countries, without any real thought for their welfare.
The DUP and Sinn Fein failed us on the hunting with dogs ban, which had massive public support.
A badger cull is still on the cards - even though we’re still packing cows into sheds to spread TB between themselves.
Our bird numbers are plummeting and wildlife is being brought further to the brink by planning laws and the lack of care for nature or biodiversity that still allows large housing estates to be build in the countryside without any thought for transport links.
Quarries are still largely unregulated with some still operating with permissions older than my mum and the Historic Review of Old Minerals Permissions Nichola Mallon told her department to sort in her last move as Minister - is no further forward.
Our waste rates to landfill are growing, there’s plastic everywhere we look, little is being done to stop fly tippers and we’re still waiting on Stormont to come up with a waste strategy, nevermind a concerted push towards a circular economy.
We still have no trains to most of the region, no trams and the Department for Infrastructure is still obsessed with roads.
We need cycle lanes and a major rethink of our city and town centres to promote active travel, remove car parking spaces and make more areas pedestrian and bike only - although hats off to group like Sustrans NI and community campaigns that are making some inroads here.
If DfI could just get really stuck into that 10-year bike plan, it would be a big help.
Then there’s the influx of companies wanting to extract all the gold, other precious metals and stone out of this place they can - and we have not updated the legislation on this for decades.
Sand is still being extracted from Lough Neagh, to line the pockets of an English aristocrat.
Former Minister Poots decided it was ok to dig large salt caverns under Larne Lough, despite knowing the salty brine being extracted would be fed into the sea near a protected wildlife area his former department oversees to create a deadzone in the sea.
And to top it all off - we still don’t have an independent Environmental Protection Agency to hold the government to account on its long list of failings - or even a working government for that matter.
After the May 2022 election, I put together a list of 11 things our politicians could do to truly improve all our lives and that of the creatures we share this space with. They were:
- Grants to insulate and draft proof every home in NI, install heat pumps and solar panels
- A plan to make NI self sufficient in food terms and bring down the cost for households
- Free public transport for under 21s
- Move to an active travel first strategy and bring back the trains
- Reinstate grants to help people buy electric cars and install chargers
- Clean air and water strategies and an end to sewage pollution
- Ban pesticides and introduce cutting schedule for public land that supports insects and wildlife
- End all support for the fossil fuel industry and move it to renewables
- New eco villages for all those on housing waiting lists and a ban on the sale of public land
- Pay farmers to rewild a third of their land and grow veg
- Last, but by no means least, an independent environment agency to hold polluters and environmental menaces to account
As I said then, I know it’s an aspirational list but by focusing on creating a healthier and happier society where people have homes that are fit to live in, money in their pockets and a landscape that supports nature and by default, us, will save a fortune in the long run.
Why aren’t they listening?
Give Veganuary a go!
I’m not telling you to go vegan or even vegetarian for that matter - but the single biggest thing you can do in 2023 to help fight the climate crisis, protect nature and promote a healthier environment for us all is stop eating so much meat.
Why not give Veganuary a go and see where it takes you!
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