Our Just Transition Commissioner writes of a ‘risk to peat harvesting’ in 2020 (pic 2). But the ‘uncertainty’ for peat companies is not the law’s fault. The companies don’t have planning permission. They’ve operated unlawfully for years. Most regulators looked away until... 1/

...NGOs (e.g. @FIEIRELAND) & the European Commission focused on applying the law.

If you want to engage in large-scale peat extraction, they said (>10 yrs ago), first you need permission & environmental assessment.

But the peat companies didn’t like the sound of that. 2/

& there was little appetite among regulators to require the peat companies to comply. Instead, one of the largest-scale unassessed industrial land uses in Europe has been ongoing for decades.

Consider this remarkable comment from the European Commission in 2004. 3/

Things have changed since then, notably for some of our peatland protected areas - e.g. we’ve seen excellent EU co-funded projects like @LIFEraisedbogs. These need scaling up urgently as part of the just transition to help address the biodiversity & climate emergencies. 4/

Coillte has had 4 EU co-funded @LIFEprogramme peatland restoration projects & since 2010 Bord na Móna has had a biodiversity action plan which includes ‘rehabilitating’ its cutaway bogs. But its core peat business - which creates these cutaways - has a problem... 5/

As at 2020, no peat company has planning permission for extraction in ; only BNM has an EPA licence; & impact assessments are almost totally absent (see 7/ & 8/ below)

The companies can’t extract peat in these circumstances, just as you can’t build a house w/out permission 6/

Here’s what the European Commission had to say in 2004:

“not a single statutory EIA has yet been undertaken for a peat extraction project in Ireland, despite the lapse of more than 15 years” since the EIA Directive came in. 7/

Since then, to my knowledge, only the peat extraction that fuels Edenderry & West Offaly power stations has been subject to EIA, and then *only because* @AnTaisce took and won a legal case on the point in the High Court in 2015: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/bord-na-m%C3%B3na-loses-offaly-power-plant-planning-case-1.2407326 8/

Peat companies currently need ‘substitute consent’ to cover their unauthorised past activities & they need planning permission & an EPA licence to keep operating in the future. Environmental assessments are needed as part of this. 9/

Workers in the peat industry have every right to be aggrieved. Their employers:

• evaded & fought regulation for years rather than engaging with the law

• played kick-the-can with climate breakdown rather than making urgent plans. 10/

It can’t simply be assumed that An Bord Pleanála will now rapidly grant substitute consent & planning permissions will follow.

E.g. West Offaly power station was refused permission by ABP in 2019 for climate reasons. Will large-scale peat extraction really just sail through? 11/

Incidentally, the language here is important. The Commissioner uses ‘peat harvesting,’ as if peat were a crop. But a raised bog takes thousands of years to form; it grows at only c.1mm per year if healthy & ‘active’; once it’s gone, it’s gone. That’s ‘extraction’. 12/

There are peat alternatives for horticulture, but they can be more expensive (unregulated peat is relatively cheap) & in the case of mushroom production, at least, in 2013 Teagasc took the view ‘work away until consumers complain’ https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2013/5173.pdf 13/

This points to another big issue, which is demand for peat. Peat extraction in - with major climate & biodiversity impacts - is driven by demand from horticulture (domestic & commercial), for use as fuel, for animal bedding, even for football pitches like @FCBarcelona’s! 14/

Like coal, oil & gas, we need to leave peat in the ground & we urgently need a just transition for affected workers, incl. large-scale peatland restoration.

But let’s not wrongly blame planning/environmental law for the situation peat companies find themselves in in 2020. 15/

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change recently proposed banning all peat extraction in the UK by 2023 & also banning the sale of peat for horticultural use given that 2/3rds is imported, “mainly from ”.

The time for a full just transition & peatland restoration is now.

End/