This evening’s meeting of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) council voted to mandate the union to adopt a stance against fracking in Ireland, in line with the union’s mandate to campaign for Trinity to divest from fossil fuels.
The mandate around divestment from fossil fuels was passed at a meeting of council in October 2014 in response to the news that Trinity had €6.1 million invested in fossil fuel companies.
Tonights motion relates to Bill Number 37 against fracking, proposed by Fine Gael, which was debated in the Dáil on October 27th. This was passed with a cross-party consensus, and is now going to the Seanad.
The motion mandates the union to adopt a stance against fracking in Ireland and for the union’s environmental lobby group to campaign on the issue “on behalf of the student population”.
Fossil Free TCD, the group behind the campaign urging Trinity to divest, held a protest on the eve of the vote outside of the Dáil last month to show support for the bill alongside other groups including Friends of the Earth and Fossil Free Berlin. The protest was attended by presenter of RTÉ’s Eco-Eye and prominent environmental advocate, Duncan Stewart.
The bill prohibiting fracking is in line with Ireland’s obligations as part of the the Paris Agreement. This is an UN agreement, due to come into force this month. It stipulates that the global average temperature must be kept within two degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Fossil Free TCD have continuously campaigned for the College to divest from their €6.1million indirectly invested in fossil fuels. Trinity’s Finance Committee is expected to announce its position soon.
Fracking injects liquid under high pressure into the Earth’s core to explore for or extract petroleum. This method has been found to increase the rate of climate change by polluting maritime life, ecosystems, water sources and the atmosphere.
The motion was proposed by Lorcan McLaren, the union’s Linguistics Convenor. Chair of the union’s lobby group for the environment, Robyn Page-Cowman, urged council to support the motion to enable the lobby group to campaign on the issue.
The union’s convenor for the School of Drama, Film and Music, Paraic McLean, spoke against the motion, stating that the issue had “very little relevance to students”. This point was refuted by Laura Killeen, the union’s convenor for the faculty of Health Sciences, who argued that students should be fighting for a “better future”.
President of TCDSU, Kieran McNulty, reassured that the mandate would not “take resources from the SU, it is a political stance”. He continued, using the results of the recent US presidential election as an example of what happens “when people become disengaged politically”.
John Conway contributed reporting to this piece
