Planning for a green future: How we can synergistically mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss

“Green future”, “Green initiatives”, “Green energy”

All references to the color green are impossible to avoid if we want to preserve or improve the environment. It is clear that “going green” is in, but which shade of green should we look at? There is the ‘bright electric green’, commonly posed on renewable energy advertisements and infographics. There is also the ‘deep forest green’ often pledged in biodiversity conservation campaigns. However, the question is, can we generate an environmental plan that actually delivers an appealing blend of both ‘electric’ and ‘deep forest’ green? 

In our recent work, we set out to determine what the optimal shade of green for Ireland’s future is. Like many countries, Ireland recognizes the need to urgently transition to a low-carbon economy to avoid the devastating impacts of unimpeded climate change. To meet our decarbonisation goals, Ireland has developed a Climate Action Plan 1. The goal of the Climate Action Plan is to achieve a net zero carbon energy system for Irish society by 2050. Specific actions include increasing the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources from 30% to 80% by 2030, establishing 8,000 hectares of newly planted trees per year, and funding the restoration and rehabilitation of peatlands. So it seems that the solution is quite straightforward – convert all current land uses to renewable energy infrastructure, new forests, and peatlands. Problem solved?!

Not so fast… In addition to the climate crisis, we are also facing an equally urgent biodiversity crisis. These two green problems can’t be solved independently. The biodiversity and climate crises are entwined in a complex system of feedbacks, with biodiversity part of the Earth system regulating climate, and climate in turn determining biodiversity patterns and trajectories. Ireland is a trailblazer in acknowledging that a synergistic solution is needed, and in May 2019, became the 2nd country worldwide to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency (Dáil Éireann, 2019). However, recognizing that climate and biodiversity require a coordinated response is only a first step. Implementation is going to be far more complicated. We need a plan, and we need it fast. 

To come up with the plan that would be the best for both climate and biodiversity, we went through the major goals of the Climate Action Plan and reviewed the scientific literature to determine how to meet those objectives in the most biodiversity friendly way possible. We identified the major threats that climate actions, such as increased renewable energy infrastructure, could impose on biodiversity (Figure 1) 2.

Figure 1. Mechanisms for climate actions which impact biodiversity. We outline major mechanisms that could impact biodiversity during the three primary life stages of renewable energy facilities: construction, operation, and decommissioning. From Gorman et al, 2023.

Along the way, we also found that many of the proposed climate actions can be implemented in ways that don’t harm biodiversity, but actually promote biodiversity: our “win-wins”. For Ireland, these include increasing offshore wind capacity, rehabilitating natural areas surrounding onshore wind turbines and limiting the development of solar photovoltaics to where humans have already erected structures, the so-called “built” environment (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Some examples of Ireland’s 2 “win-wins” for climate action and promoting biodiversity.

Ultimately, biodiversity-friendly renewable energy can be achieved by prioritizing renewables that are the least damaging and ensuring that infrastructure development is carried out as sensitively as possible in order to protect, restore, and enhance biodiversity. This could look different depending on where in the environment we are talking about, which is why choosing an appropriate site for each method is critical – we need a plan! 

We hope that this work can form the basis for that plan for Ireland and stimulate broader discussions on what this looks like for other countries. By synergistically mitigating both our climate and biodiversity crises, we can ensure that Ireland’s future is Emerald Green. 

About the author: Courtney Gorman is a postdoctoral researcher and project manager for the Nature+Energy project at Trinity College Dublin. She has a PhD in Biology from the University of Konstanz in Germany.

References:

1. Government of Ireland. Climate Action Plan. https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ccb2e0-the-climate-action-plan-2019/ (2021).

2. Gorman, C. E. et al. Reconciling climate action with the need for biodiversity protection, restoration and rehabilitation. Science of The Total Environment 857, 159316 (2023).

Blog amended from first publication on Campus Buzz.

The Marvelous Photo Competition 2020, with Special Guest Judge John Holden – Part 2: Entries and the winner

Drumroll please! It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The votes have been cast, they’ve been counted and recounted, and we can finally showcase the entries and reveal the winner of the 4th EcoEvo blog photo competition!

Continue reading “The Marvelous Photo Competition 2020, with Special Guest Judge John Holden – Part 2: Entries and the winner”

The Marvelous Photo Competition 2020, with Special Guest Judge John Holden – Part 1: Interview with the Judge

It’s that time of year when we redecorate the blog and change the wallpaper with the help of our contributors and their photography skills. That’s right, it’s the 4th annual EcoEvo Blog Photo Competition!

Continue reading “The Marvelous Photo Competition 2020, with Special Guest Judge John Holden – Part 1: Interview with the Judge”

Invasive clams like it hot: heated water from power plants gives populations a boost

Corbicula fluminea dominating the River Shannon bottom near the Lough Ree Power Station.

This post by Maureen and Marcin is based on their paper in the November 2019 issue of Science of The Total Environment, “Thermal effluents from power plants boost performance of the invasive clam Corbicula fluminea in Ireland’s largest river”. (Penk & Williams, 2019)

The River Shannon is Ireland’s largest river, with a storied biological and cultural history. The River drains 20% of the country, running through the centre of the midlands while providing a source of power and water. The machinery used to generate power in most power plants, whether they’re nuclear, peat-fueled, or coal-powered plants, often heats up to extreme temperatures when the plants are running. To try to keep the machinery cool, many power plants today take water from local sources, use it to cool the generators, and then put it back out into the original source. Two of Ireland’s largest power plants, the Lough Ree Power Station and the West Offaly Power Station, use water from the River Shannon in this way, putting the water back into the river up to 10°C hotter than the River water. The warm water can change the structure of the aquatic community near the output, and our study shows that this increase in temperature gives a significant boost to the invasive Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea.

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Is a seal cull needed to protect fish stocks?

For decades, Irish fishermen have called for Irish seals to be culled. The call for a seal cull has been made especially vociferously in the west of the country, and has been brought into the national discussion when backed by politicians and highlighted by illegal acts of violence against seals. Just weeks ago, Michael Healy-Rae, Independent TD for Kerry, was in the media demanding a cull. Though many people perceive seals to compete with fishermen, any impact on fisheries is not well supported by the research. Studies have found that seals do not generally compete for the same fish resources as fishermen, and modelling has indicated that the presence or absence of seals has little impact on fisheries catches.

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A Scientist Goes to Court

A very interesting case has been underway in the high court the past week. Last Thursday and Friday, the Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), a conglomerate which represents Irish environmental NGOs, have been laying out their case that the Irish State’s actions on climate change are inadequate. They argue that that the government’s approval of the National Mitigation Plan in 2017 was in violation of Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, the Constitution, and human rights obligations. Basically, climate change is a thing, and Ireland hasn’t acted adequately to decarbonise the economy, putting the lives of its citizens at risk. Today the state was responding, so I went along to hear how they were going to defend their record. Continue reading “A Scientist Goes to Court”

A Nobel Pursuit

Splitting the atom, unlocking the secrets of radiation, or even leading a peaceful civil rights movement.

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I grew up knowing that these were the sorts of achievements that earn you a gold medal and an invitation to Sweden in mid-December. I have since learned that the annual ceremony held in honour of Alfred Nobel hasn’t always been awarded to the most deserving candidate, and that sometimes the winners simply stumbled upon a discovery that changed the world. This was not the case with the 2015 Nobel prize for Physiology and Medicine. Continue reading “A Nobel Pursuit”

A tern-up for the books

Little Tern taking off from nest © Andrew Power and Peter Cutler
Little Tern taking off from nest © Andrew Power and Peter Cutler

The last two years have seen successive record breeding seasons for Little Terns (Sternula albifrons) on the Irish east coast, with over 350 pairs breeding in 2013 and over 400 pairs in 2014. These record years are the result of 30 years of dedicated efforts to rescue Little Terns as an Irish breeding species, after population collapses in the 1980s and 1990s. As part of the BirdWatch Ireland team involved in these two exceptional years, we reflect on the conservation success story which has led to this remarkable tern-around in fortunes. Continue reading “A tern-up for the books”

Hopsolete Trees

Beer_bottles

One of the most unusual benefits of being in Ireland from a Southern French PhD student’s perspective is not so much the rain and the pronounced taste for culinary oddities (some weird, some excellent) but the awesome trend towards a new age of craft beers (and I’m not mentioning the pillar of Irish pub culture). Looking at the increasing beer richness available in any decent pub/off-licence, I was inspired to combine two of my passions: beer-related stuff and phylogeny-related stuff. Despite an honourable attempt by J.L. Brown, I would like to discuss the three reasons why it’s imphopsible to build a true beer phylogeny. Admittedly one of the main reasons for this impossibility is the side effect of drinking any sugar rich (at least originally) drink that has been infected by Saccharomyces cerevisiae… But there are also three more theoretical reasons. Continue reading “Hopsolete Trees”