You don’t have to be from Clare to advise the European Environment Agency on science, but it helps.
By Ross O’Donoghue
“We had a few sheep on the farm,” says Claire Dupont, newly appointed EEA Scientific Committee Chair. “I loved being with the lambs in the springtime. I grew up with a very strong connection to nature and it’s only in adult life I’ve realized that not everybody has it.”
Childhood on a farm between Cratloe and Sixmilebridge served her well. After a degree in the University of Limerick and development work in Tanzania, a move to Brussels switched her attention to climate policy. She is now a Professor at Ghent University, focused on climate and environmental governance.
With an honesty that Biddy Early would be proud of, Claire Dupont was a straight talker at this week’s webinar on the EU’s Carbon Neutral future. Can we achieve net zero by 2050?
“Nowhere in our human history do we have experience or knowledge of the sorts of global climatic change that we currently experience. We are in unknown territory and I think it’s important for us to keep that in mind.
“Transformation is inevitable. It is coming because the underlying life support systems of our planet are being destabilised by human action.”
She paints a picture of damage limitation when it comes to our water systems and our soil quality.
She sees the impact of a pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Can hope come in the form of the European Green Deal? “The European Green Deal has taken on a life of its own. Despite calls from business lobbies and other countries saying we need to put aside our climate policies and focus on economic recovery, the European Commission wrote a proposal for recovery that put the Green Deal at the heart of it.”
Dupont has been studying the EU for over 15 years and admits the robustness of the European Green Deal is somewhat surprising.
“I don’t want to say that everything is perfect. Managing the success, scale, speed and scope of it is not easy. We should not underestimate crises. But with the European Green Deal, we do have a roadmap for where we need to get to.”
Change is coming, but this Clare woman is fighting for a Europe where her own daughters can enjoy the lambs in spring. Dílis Dá Oidhreacht – true to her heritage, as the saying goes.
