Ireland’s first ever Climate Justice Charter is here!

Ireland’s first ever Climate Justice Charter is here!

Sign Ireland's First Climate Justice Charter
The young people of the Future Generations Project have created Ireland’s first-ever Climate Justice Charter. This is a major landmark in Ireland’s efforts to embed Climate Justice principles in organisations across the country.
But what is a ‘Charter’?
There are many definitions of the word ‘charter’ but in this case, it refers to a set of principles and guidelines that organisations agree to commit to.
The Agricultural and Rural Affairs Policy Officer from Macra na Feirme, Gillian Richardson said ‘we love that the charter is accessible for every organisation and every group of young people. From young farmers making a living to young people making change, there is something in there for everyone.’
The principles of the charter are written in a way that compliments the work that most organisations are currently doing. It seeks to deepen the whole-organisation approach to Climate Justice without creating more workload. Instead, the charter provides simple guidelines that can be referred to, to ensure a Climate Justice approach is being achieved.
Lee Cummins, Project Leader from Sphere 17 Regional Youth Service, stated that ‘the charter is beneficial for all organisations as it acts as a set of good practice guidelines that allows Sphere 17 to begin to truly embed Climate Justice at all levels – from our board of directors to the young people we work with.’
The Climate Justice movement will require a strong collaborative approach, and so the Future Generations project is calling upon all organisations to become signatories and join the Climate Justice Charter Community.
Organisations should join if they wish to recognise climate change as a crucial issue for young people and demonstrate their commitment to take action alongside the young people they work with. Furthermore, organisations that join the ever-growing Climate Justice community will benefit from Climate Justice training and events led by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) and the Future
Generations Project that will support whole-organisations; board members, staff, youth workers, volunteers, and young people.
TJ Hourihan, the Advocacy & Youth Information Service Coordinator at YMCA Ireland, commented that their organisation ‘love the Climate Justice Charter because its creation of it was entirely youth-led. It captures exactly what the young people wanted the charter to say and the capacity to convince others how the world should be.’
To learn more or join the Climate Justice Charter Community, visit
https://www.youth.ie/climatejusticecharter/. If you have any questions about the charter or how you can implement it within your organisation, contact Eimear Manning from NYCI at eimear@nyci.ie.

Meet our New Sustainability Officer!

At our AGM back in March, congress voted to add a new officer role onto our NSE — Sustainability Officer. After going through various candidates, it is our great pleasure to introduce Saoi O’Connor as our Sustainability Officer for this NSE term;

“Hi, i’M Saoi O’Connor and I’m a 16 year old climate activist from Skibbereen, Co Cork. I have been climate striking in Cork City for 37 weeks now. I am passionate about justice in all its forms, especially climate justice & sustainability. My work protesting the climate crisis has brought me into a network of like-minded friendships all over the world from Sweden to Uganda to Palestine. I first became involved with ISSU at the Regional Council last year and I’m incredibly excited for the coming year to work with the National Student Executive.”

Saoi will be liaising with Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Action orgs to promote equality and climate justice. They will run environmental campaigns throughout their term and promote the student voice in the midst of climate action.

The role of sustainability officer is one of great importance in this time of extreme lack of understanding of how severe the climate crisis is. It is evident through the strikes and many more campaigns coming through that young people are the only people taking this climate emergency seriously. Hopefully with Saoi and sustainability officers for years to come more of our leaders will step up and do what is necessary to save our future.

You can keep up to Saoi’s work on their twitter here.