In the 21st century the most patriotic thing to do with fossil fuels is keep them in the ground

Ireland has joined a small club of countries that have banned oil and gas exploration. It hopes its action will encourage other countries to follow suit, writes Adam McGibbon

The Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, where fossils fuels will now stay underground (Getty)

In July 2019, the Irish government under prime minister Leo Varadkar fought tooth and nail to stop the passage of a law from a left-wing member of the Irish parliament. Brid Smith’s Climate Emergency Bill would have ended the issuing of licences to companies to drill oil and gas in Irish waters.

The Irish climate movement had used the government’s lack of a majority in the Dail (the lower house of parliament) to good effect in the preceding years, banning fracking and making Ireland the first country in the world to remove fossil fuel investments from its sovereign wealth fund. This time, with cross-party support in the Dail and huge support from civil society, the Climate Emergency Bill looked like it would succeed too. As Smith put it, her bill, if passed, would make Ireland a “beacon to the world, by turning off the tap for fossil fuel extraction”.

But this time, the opposition was too much for Fine Gael, Varadkar’s party. Under pressure from the oil and gas industry, Varadkar and his party used dirty tricks, and killed the bill employing an arcane parliamentary rule, unused for 50 years. Outrage flowed, with many accusing Varadkar and his ministers of hypocrisy for praising youth climate strikers while failing to take decisive climate action.