A Just Transition for Peatworkers

Peat Extraction
Courtesy NPWS ©

When Ireland signed up to and endorsed the 2015 Paris Agreement, attentions were immediately directed towards the cessation of national peat extraction as it is currently the least climate-efficient way to produce electricity or heat. While a quick exit from peat will have a significant impact on reductions of our national emissions, this however, will mean the end of employment for many Irish citizens, particularly in the Midlands. 

The ESB has just announced (8 Nov, 2019) that it will shut two of its peat plants in the Midlands when current planning permissions have expired at the end of 2020. This will affect 80 ESB workers that work at these plants and an additional 1,000 staff members of Bord na Móna, that supply peat to the ESB every year. Original plans to convert both plants for co-firing biomass, and then phase them out in 2027, were quashed following a review of the key planning, environmental and commercial issues associated with peat and biomass. This review determined there was no viable business model beyond 2020. Under the Paris Agreements terms, Governments must provide policy measures to ensure a just transition for those working in fossil fuel based industries, including peat extraction (Irish Congress of Trade Unions, 2019).

The recent Oireachtas Report of the joint Committee on Climate Action acknowledges that the Midland region faces the most pressing needs, due to impacts already being felt by recent changes associated with  the reduction of commercial peat. The report states that over 4,000 additional households could be impacted, over the next few years, in the Midlands due to the phasing out of peat extraction. The committee expresses its concerns that efforts made from Bord na Móna to provide a number of creative enterprises will not be enough to replace the work associated with peat extraction, and makes suggestions to reskill  Bord na Móna workers for house retrofitting under the delivery of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) house retrofitting programme. This suggestion has been adopted by the Government as a set action in the recent Climate Action Plan. It aims to develop a new delivery body to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery system for retrofits, including examining how to deliver a major house retrofitting programme in the Midlands (DCCAE, 2019)

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions 2019 report titled ‘Building a Just Transition The Case of Bord na Mona’ suggests that a whole of Government approach will be required in tackling the issue. It calls for the immediate establishment of a Just Transition Forum for the Midlands, to be tasked with developing the appropriate measures to ensure that no one is left behind as a result of commitments entered into by government, under the Paris Agreement (Irish Congress of Trade Unions, 2019).

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Mr Bruton, has just announced that €20 milli on has been set aside in the Budget for retrofitting in the Midlands that the State says will support 400 jobs. An additional €5 million will go toward bog restoration and rehabilitation that will result in the creation of up to 100 jobs. The country's first Just Transition commissioner has also just been employed, to engage with all relevant stakeholders, review best practices and existing State plans and programmes, in order to bring forward proposals that will make steps towards a just transition.  

Regardless of the approach taken, the Government must honour its commitment to deliver on a just transition, as the workers at Bord na Móna will be the first of many workforces and communities affected by industry change due to national responses to the climate change crisis.  It is important that every effort is made to ensure those in the Midlands do not fall behind as a result, because this will set the potential for a public backlash, by raising doubts on the ability to transition successfully and justly. This will in turn, make the longer term transition to a decarbonised economy much slower and less achievable.