2024 graphic

Centre for Climate and Society Annual Conference

to
Campus
Glasnevin Campus
Venue
The Helix
Target Audience
All Welcome
Is registration required?
Yes

Climate Justice Across Generations

The fourth annual DCU Centre for Climate and Society conference took place on 16 April 2024 in The Helix on the DCU Glasnevin Campus, and featured keynote contributions from Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders, participants in Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and Ella Saltmarshe, co-founder of The Long Time Project

The climate crisis raises deep and complex questions of justice, within and across national borders and between generations. As we face into a very unequal and unjust future, the conference examined how the worlds of media, politics and policy, activism, and business can address urgent calls for climate justice to address the many inequities generated by the climate crisis. 

 


Diarmuid

Dr Diarmuid Torney, Director of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society

Dr Diarmuid Torney, Director of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society and Associate Professor, DCU School of Law and Government, welcomed the audience to the fourth annual Centre conference. He said that there was increasing awareness of the dire impacts of climate change, “but a yawning gap between what we are collectively doing and what we know needs to be done”. Highlighting the conference focus on climate justice across the generations, Dr Torney added that the aim was to start new conversations about the many inequities that characterise the climate and biodiversity emergencies, and our responses to them. He added that focussing on climate justice between generations is particularly timely as it raises an important question: “How can we deliver a better present as well as safeguarding the future”.

Glenn

Glenn Gillard, Sustainability Market Lead, Deloitte Ireland

Glenn Gillard, Sustainability Market Lead, Deloitte Ireland, spoke about the centrality of dialogue in achieving a just transition, the role of the business sector in driving systemic change, and the need for collaboration across the public and private sectors. However, he noted that there were now new challenges for business, particularly in terms of changing priorities in the boardroom. As a result, he said it was crucial that the business sector maintain a strong focus on sustainability. He added that young people were key to this as they "make business look beyond the bottom line".


Daire

Professor Daire Keogh, President of DCU

Introducing the first key speaker of the day, Professor Daire Keogh, President of DCU, spoke of the need for new conversations and for greater awareness of our common purpose in tackling climate change. He began by highlighting the escalating warning signs of the climate crisis. He said "Our planet is literally on fire. Global temperature records are being broken month by month. But it’s not just the normal patterns of our climate that are being disrupted, generational patterns and norms are changing too". He added that while none of us can hide from climate change there is hope that the conversations we have today will help to create common purpose across the generations. Professor Keogh also spoke about the role of universities in helping to impact students and transform lives and society. 

Keynote Address - May Robinson

The recording of the keynote address by Mary Robinson can be viewed here

Mary
Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders, began her keynote address by explaining her interest in climate justice and sharing her experiences with different forms of injustice as part of her work with The Elders. She spoke about five types of climate injustice, including racial injustice, as she highlighted that people of colour experience climate impacts sooner or more acutely. She argued that the focus on long-term thinking was essential to address climate (in)justices. She said “Long-view leadership tries to address existential threats. We need thoughtful, mature thinking in order to deal with the new threats we face. The climate and nature crisis, the pandemic, and nuclear threats, these all require long-term thinking.”

Mary Robinson also spoke of Project Dandelion, a new women-led global campaign for climate justice which aims to draw attention to how the climate crisis disproportionately impacts women and girls. A major focus of the initiative is the need to reach beyond the climate community in order to drive more urgency around the climate crisis and bring more people together. Building on this, she said we need a symbol so that we can identify allies and counter the huge amount of funding that is spent on undermining climate action. "Symbols are powerful… they have a life of their own… we need a symbol that will unite us to combat the fossil fuel industry".

She also spoke about the challenges of finding funding for Project Dandelion and the need for philanthropy to prioritise climate. However, she noted that we currently lack a vision for the role of philanthropy and that a lot of corporates don’t see themselves in climate.

She concluded with a call to bring more urgency to climate action. She said "We are on the cusp of a clean energy, safer, fairer world, but we are not moving fast enough". However, she added that through connection we could move faster. Reflecting on the task ahead, she ended her talk with a favourite quote from Kofi Annan "You are never too young to lead, and you are never too old to learn". 


Panel 1 – How can policy address long-term climate inequities in Ireland and beyond?

The recording of Panel 1 can be viewed here. The panel was chaired by Dr Ross Carroll, Centre member and Assistant Professor in Political Science, DCU School of Law and Government.


Keynote Address - Participants in Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
 

Dr Diarmuid Torney, introduced four participants of Ireland’s Children and Young People’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, Niamh, Laura, Conor and Ailidh, who spoke about their experiences of taking part in the Assembly and their hopes for more ambition on biodiversity action in Ireland. The recording of their keynote can be viewed can be viewed here


Derek

Professor Derek Hand, Executive Dean of the DCU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor Derek Hand, Executive Dean, DCU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences introduced keynote speaker, Ella Saltmarshe. He spoke of the importance of the arts in engaging people with climate change and how it can shed new light on our interactions with nature. 

Keynote Address - Ella Saltmarshe

The recording of the keynote address by Ella Saltmarshe can be viewed here

Ella
Ella Saltmarshe

Ella Saltmarshe, Co-Founder of The Long Time Project, gave a wide ranging talk on how we can be better ancestors, perspectives on intergenerational justice, and the concept of deep time. During her talk she took the audience through a number of thought exercises including a high intensity workout and an exercise to imagine seven generations as an approach to building intergenerational empathy.

Ella explained the concept of ‘deep time’ and how it can help us to experience a stronger connection to the beauty and improbability of life, as well as heightening a much-needed sense of outrage about not protecting nature. She said, “ultimately, we cannot be good ancestors and live in a system that perpetuates injustice. This work is inherently revolutionary, it’s about shifting the structures we live in.”


Panel 2 – How can the business world embrace a long-term perspective in its decision-making?

The recording of Panel 2 can be viewed here. The panel was chaired by Dr Aideen O'Dochartaigh, Centre member and Assistant Professor in Accounting, DCU Business School.


Panel 3 – Climate journalism: Newsroom time vs geological time

The recording of Panel 3 can be viewed here. The panel was chaired by Dr Trish Morgan, Centre member and Assistant Professor in the DCU School of Communications.