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Consultation on proposals to ban the issuing of licences for the exploration, extraction and production of fuels extracted by fracking - Seán Lynch MLA
The purpose of the Bill is to ensure no fracking can take place in the North of Ireland by banning the issuing of any further licences from the Minister for Economy for the exploration, extraction, and production of fuels extracted by hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is an environmentally destructive form of fossil fuel extraction that multiple international scientific studies have linked to a string of deeply worrying public health issues.
It remains an accepted practice here, despite having been banned in the rest of Ireland as well as Britain and several other countries and regions around the world.
Fracking is a method of extracting oil and gas from subterranean rock by injecting fracturing fluid (a mixture of water, sand and/or chemicals) int boreholes. The fracking fluid opens fractures in the rock allowing gas or oil to be extracted.
Numerous scientific studies from highly respected bodies such as the EU's Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) and the US' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have shown that fracking can have significant negative impacts on both the environment and the health and wellbeing of nearby populations.
The practice has been shown to cause groundwater contamination, soil corruption, earthquakes, noise pollution and significant increases in airborne radioactivity as well as increased greenhouse gas emissions.
These studies have also linked it to a host of health problems including birth defects, cancer and asthma.
Even its economic benefits are often overstated. Like any industry based on a finite resource it is prone to a “boom and bust” economic model. While investment in renewable technologies can create long-term jobs, the nature of fossil fuels means that once the well has been tapped dry, fracking companies simply pack up and leave.
Fracking also has the potential to impact on important local industries such as tourism and agri-food. Even the public perception of the air, soil and water contamination caused by fracking could cause serious damage to areas that rely on tourism and agri-food.
As we learn more and more about the effects of fracking, more and more national and regional governments are re-evaluating their approach to it.
Fracking has been banned in several EU countries, while Canadian and US provinces and states such as Quebec, Washington and New York have also put a halt to it.
All this is taking place against the backdrop of a severe and existential climate and biodiversity crisis.
Since the industrial revolution, a surge in CO2 emissions, which get trapped in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect, has sent global temperatures rising, resulting in melting ice caps, rising sea levels, habitat destruction, desertification and acidification of the ocean.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius if we are to avoid irrevocable climate consequences. We are already at 1 degree Celsius according to the IPCC and our current trajectory means we may have already missed avoiding the 1.5-degree Celsius upper limit.
All of this demands an urgent and radical programme of action against the further exploration, extraction and production of fossil fuels.
Just by utilising all existing fossil fuel reserves, we would create catastrophic and irreversible change to our climate and damage to the natural environment.
If we are to protect our planet and preserve a clean environment for future generations, then we must invest in green, renewable forms of energy production and our fossil fuels must remain in the ground.</