A Just Transition
Thank you Professor John Barry for your most informative and thought provoking address to the Club Monday 22 November reflecting on the global climate problem and the action needed locally and globally in particular emphasising the necessity of a just transition.
He reflected that this year NI had its first heat warning in July and that climate models predict this will re-occur along with severe flooding. Professor Barry pointed out that currently everything in our lives depends on fossil fuels which have a huge detrimental effect on our health and revealed that a new research from Harvard University found that fossil fuel air pollution was responsible for the deaths of more than 8 million people in 2018, significantly higher than previous research suggested, meaning that air pollution from burning fossil fuels was responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. He declared that everything (food, heating, transport) needs to change but stressed that transition must be JUST to reduce any impact on the potentially unemployed.
His most interesting address was very well received.