Join the emergency campaign to stop fracking in Northern Ireland.
What’s happening:
Sinn Féin is poised to vote in the coming weeks on the Democratic Unionist Party’s plan to move forward with a petroleum licensing policy that will open the door to fracking in Northern Ireland.
If the DUP’s plan is approved, it will poison our water, land, air, and public health.
There are already pending drilling and fracking permits in areas of Fermanagh (by Tamboran Resources UK) and the five council areas in and around Belfast (by EHA Exploration) that will move forward if the petroleum licensing policy is approved.
This must be stopped!
Why it matters:
Northern Ireland is currently the only area in the region to not have a moratorium or ban on drilling and fracking. The Republic, Scotland, Wales, and England have all stopped fracking because of the adverse environmental and public health risks as well as the potential for triggering earthquakes.
A 2021 investigation by the Irish Centre for Human Rights found that “unconventional oil and gas extraction, including processes such as hydraulic fracturing [“fracking”], pose a significant threat to human rights through both their contribution to climate change and their procedures’ impacts on surrounding communities.”
The practice of fracking forces natural gas out of the ground by injecting a mix of water and chemicals into the soil. These chemicals seep into the surrounding groundwater and land, poisoning drinking water and harming crops, livestock, and public health in addition to driving climate change. Natural gas is primarily methane which is a greenhouse gas that has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
Sherry Vargson in Pennsylvania, United States, where fracking is common, can light a match at her kitchen tap and see an orange flame flare out of the faucet. State regulators attribute the methane contamination of the area’s drinking water to natural gas fracking.
Communities living in Northern Ireland are asking for international help to stop this industry and urge Sinn Féin to take the following actions:
Use their veto power to block the petroleum licencing policy review. Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister, must agree on what items go into the Executive agenda with DUP First Minister Paul Givan. That means Sinn Féin has the power to veto the Executive agenda and can block the petroleum licensing policy review.
Conduct a public health assessment while the policy review is blocked. Our communities have learned that no public health impact assessment has been conducted while the DUP pushes forward with their plans to frack in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin should block the review of the petroleum licencing policy until a public health assessment has been conducted.
Work with the Alliance Party and Ulster Unionists to ban petroleum licencing. Both the Alliance Party and Ulster Unionists have given communities assurances that they will vote for a ban on petroleum licencing in the upcoming petroleum licensing policy review in the Stormont Executive. Sinn Féin should work proactively with Alliance and Ulster Unionists to ban petroleum licencing when the policy does come up for review.
Sinn Féin must condemn the DUP’s Energy Strategy and blue hydrogen.
Sign the petition urging Sinn Féin to ban petroleum licencing and conduct a public health assessment.
The Democratic Unionist Party is quietly pushing new energy policies to drill and frack Northern Ireland and falsely promote “blue hydrogen” as clean energy.
After the fracking ban in Ireland and England, DUP Minister of Economy Gordon Lyons began setting a new framework to approve drilling and fracking permits in Northern Ireland by producing a series of industry-backed, pro-fracking reports and plans that have set the stage for major fossil fuel extraction and pollution. These documents include the recently leaked Hatch report and the DUP’s Energy Strategy for Northern Ireland.
About the Hatch report:
In October 2020, the DUP commissioned a report to assess the impact of oil and gas extraction in Northern Ireland after communities pushed back against previous efforts by the fossil fuel industry to begin fracking in the region.
The DUP contracted pro-fossil fuel industry group Hatch Researchers to write the report, which falsely concluded that fracking in Northern Ireland would have little impact on the environment or public health.
The DUP refused to release the report publicly. In November 2021, it was leaked by a whistleblower to environmental activists and the media, which revealed fundamental flaws in the report: the authors have no qualifications or experience in public health, and the report itself ignored thousands of submitted comments by public health professionals testifying to the severe impacts of fracking on human health. You can read the report in full here.
On January 17, 2022, DUP Minister Lyons also admitted that they did not conduct any site-specific public health assessments when completing the report in a response to a recent question by MLA Jerry Carroll. Read the letter here.
Recently on January 17th and 27th, Minister Lyons admitted that the Department of Health and Public Health Agency were not available to participate in the Hatch report because they had to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Minister Lyons also acknowledges that because of this the health info in the Hatch report is “not site specific” and is “based on published evidence in the UK”. Read the letters here.
Even though the report is inherently flawed, it does acknowledge that fracking in Northern Ireland will pollute the groundwater and air, damage our soil, trigger earthquakes, harm our crops and livestock, and hinder tourism.
The report is now being used to reinstate the existing petroleum licencing policy that, if approved, will also allow two permits to move forward to begin fracking in Fermanagh and near Belfast.
About the DUP Energy Strategy Report & Action Plan:
On December 16, 2021, DUP Minister Lyons also released the “Path to Net Zero” Energy Strategy, which lays out an overarching energy plan for Northern Ireland that includes both renewable energy and controversial “blue hydrogen.”
Blue hydrogen is natural gas. So-called “blue hydrogen” is produced by splitting natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. It is falsely marketed by the fossil fuel industry as a “clean energy” because the byproduct of burning hydrogen is water. But producing hydrogen is an extremely carbon-intensive process requiring large amounts of natural gas that would come from drilling and fracking in Northern Ireland, which the report notes.
Supplemental documents for the DUP’s energy strategy indicate plans for 60% of Northern Ireland’s hydrogen profile to come from natural gas.
On January 20, 2022, DUP Minister Lyons held a press event and released a 22-point action plan as the next part of the energy strategy. The plan’s sixth point includes building a “Hydrogen Centre of Excellence” to expand blue hydrogen across Northern Ireland.
The promotion of blue hydrogen by the DUP and the gas industry is a false front to expand fracking and natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland. The gas industry is ramping up its PR efforts to rebrand fracked gas as low-carbon, “renewable” hydrogen — but as outlined in the DUP Minister of Economy’s own report on blue hydrogen, greenhouse gas emissions would be 20% higher than those of gas or coal.
Launch of a New International Campaign
The International Campaign to Ban Fracking in Northern Ireland started with a local group of farmers and residents in Fermanagh called LAMP and Belcoo Frack Free.
Over the past year, the coalition has grown to an all-Ireland network, with groups including Extinction Rebellion, Youth Climate Action, and Farmers for Action. The campaign has also won support from international organizations and activists, including actor and anti-fracking activist Mark Ruffalo.
The campaign launched on January 25, 2022, with actions outside of Sinn Féin offices, along the Shannon Erne waterway and in Belfast, and will continue raising public awareness through February, culminating with actions in Dublin and New York City during Sinn Féin’s participation in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade this March.
Recent press coverage includes Belfast Live, Dublin Live, The Times UK, The Belfast Telegraph, Business Post, and an op-ed in Farming Life.
We are calling on Sinn Féin to move from simply opposing the DUP as they have for the last 10 years to taking real action to end the threat of fracking over our health, homes, and all that we value. So far Sinn Féin has done very little to stop this toxic industry from proliferating in Northern Ireland.
The DUP plans to bring a review of the petroleum licencing policy up for a vote in the Stormont Executive any day. If the petroleum licencing policy is allowed to move forward and if Sinn Féin fail to join the Alliance Party and Ulster Unionist in banning petroleum licencing, drilling, and fracking, our communities are at severe risk of harm to our public health and human rights.
In order to stop this, Sinn Féin must work proactively in the Executive with other parties to ensure the preferred option for the new policy that comes out from the Stormont Executive is a policy to ban petroleum licencing.
Join us in contacting Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill today and ask them to stop fracking in Northern Ireland! They should 1) block the petroleum licencing review to conduct a proper public health assessment of fracking on our communities, and 2) vote to ban petroleum licencing when the policy does come up for a review.
Read our public letter to members of Dáil Éireann here:
