One of Ireland’s best known ecologists has volunteered to protest with farmers if the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) gets the go ahead to increase passenger numbers from 32 to 40 million per annum.
Pádraic Fogarty said the agriculture sector has been told to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% by 2030 but “ironically Dublin airport now wants to expand by the same amount”.
“I’ll protest with farmers at the airport if this expansion is allowed,” he said.
Fingal County Council has yet to make a decision on what the DAA has described as an application for “a range of significant investments to facilitate the projected growth of passenger numbers through Dublin Airport”.
The council is expected to make a decision to “approve, reject, or request further information” in relation to the application by mid-February.
Airport capacity
According to Professor Hannah Daly from University College Cork “expanding Irish airport capacity by 25% would cause an increase in emissions of approximately three quarters of a million tonnes of CO2”.
Fogarty believes it would be “entirely unjust” to give the DAA the greenlight to expand and in turn increase its GHG emissions while insisting that the agriculture sector must meet its reductions target.
He said it would also be “totally hypocritical” for DAA to secure permission to increase passenger capacity particularly in light of the objectives set out in the government’s latest Climate Action Plan.
The third annual update to the Climate Action Plan published in December 2023 states that “continued emissions of GHGs will cause further warming and changes to our climate leading to increased risks to people and nature”.
Emissions
Last month the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) warned that it was “watching like hawks” what the outcome would be of the DAA’s” infrastructure development planning application” for Dublin Airport.
Denis Drennan, president of ICMSA, said: “The government must surely see that it would be impossible for them to accede to Aer Lingus’ and DAA’s wishes for a 33% increase in flights – with the massively increased emissions involved – while demanding that farming and food production was cut to lower emissions associated with that activity”.
According to Fogarty he does not often agree with the iCMSA but in this instance he feels they are right.
“Allowing Dublin Airport to massively increase its emissions while everyone else is under pressure to reduce them is fundamentally wrong,” he said.
But Kenny Jacobs, chief executive of the DAA, maintains that if Fingal County Council approves its planning application this would “result in more jobs being created and further economic growth”.
“Until this application is approved, Dublin Airport’s terminals will remain capped at 32 million passengers and Ireland will continue to wave goodbye to good jobs and economic growth,” Jacobs added.