NI GREENS REACT TO ‘SHOCKING’ REPORT ON POORLY INSULATED HOUSING EXECUTIVE HOMES CONTRIBUTING TO ILLNESS AND FUEL POVERTY 

The Green Party in Northern Ireland has reacted with shock and anger to a new Housing Executive report highlighting the scandal of poorly insulated homes.

North Down Green Party Councillor Professor John Barry said: “This is one of the most shocking reports I have read.  

“It documents the shameful reality of thousands of people living in sub-standard housing across Northern Ireland.  

“The report found that only 9% of the houses surveyed were of an adequate thermal standard, which means the vast majority of Housing Executive properties are ‘hard to heat’ homes.  

“This explains why people are in fuel poverty, since they have to spend more and more of their money on trying to heat their home, much of the heat escaping from the house.  

Hard earned income is literally going up in smoke

“It also explains why so many Housing Executive tenants have health problems that are directly related to living in sub-standard housing.  

“This report gives a telling insight into why Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of people living in fuel poverty in the UK. 

“That’s why the Green Party has continually and consistently pushed to move away from expensive, imported fossil fuels towards combination of improved energy efficiency and increased generation from local, renewable energy sources, as the way to tackle fuel poverty.   

“We argued for a ‘Green New Deal’ (GND) back in 2008 as a way of dealing with hard to heat homes.

“If the GND had have been adopted by the Executive we could have reduced fuel poverty and tackled the health-related problems of hard to heat homes while providing employment opportunities in insulating our social housing stock.  

“But we now see the outcomes of the Executive’s decision not to support a Green New Deal program.  

“What is even more shocking is the fact that the Housing Executive has not published any recommendations from the report. 

“Normally with such reports, problems are identified and a series of recommendations made about how to solve them but this report does not have these.

“While the Housing Executive is not to blame for the poor quality of insulation, most of which was done in the 1980s, they have a responsibility and a duty of care for addressing and solving this legacy issue now.  

“As the report states: “The level of poorly insulated homes is extremely concerning and has major social implications in terms of energy costs, health, social and environmental issues. It serves no purpose within this report to try to apportion blame for this phenomenon but to realise the issue is real and present and needs attention for those suffering in certain homes.”

“I call upon the Housing Executive to clarify why the report was published without the recommendations. 

“This report is in line with other reports from the University of Ulster and the insulation industry about the dangerous levels of sub-standard housing in Northern Ireland in terms of thermal efficiency and heat retention.  

“Urgent action is needed now by the Housing Executive and the Department for Social Development to ensure thousands of people are no longer forced to live in sub-standard housing, getting them deeper into fuel poverty and causing ill health.

“This report is a wake-up call to the Housing Executive, the Northern Ireland Executive in general and the new Minister for Social Development.

“Why are so many of our citizens living in sub-standard housing?  

“This is a disgrace in the 21^st century and a modern scandal.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

42% of people in Northern Ireland, as compared with 15% in England live in fuel poverty, meaning they spend more than 10% of their income heating their home to an acceptable level.

The report verifies that the sample size of 206 houses is statistically robust to take the sample as a broad indicator of the state of cavity wall insulation across the entire NI Housing Executive stock of 89,000 houses.  The report states: ‘the Project Advisory Group agreed that it (206 houses) still provided a statistically sound sample which would provide a broad indication of the quality of cavity wall insulation in Housing Executive properties.”

For further information contact:
Green Party in Northern Ireland Press Officer Joanna BraniffT: 028 90521141M: 0780 8862141

E: joanna.braniff@party.niassembly.gov.uk

Don't believe sceptics, we need climate action now Belfast Telegraph, Tuesday 2nd April 2014

SOME people bring joy wherever they go, some ... whenever they go. And I know which of these relates to climate sceptics and deniers, who have for years successfully managed to delay action on climate change.If the world doesn't cut the pollution of heat-trapping gases, the already noticeable harms of climate change could spiral "out of control", Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned this week.As the authors of the IPCC's latest report put it, starkly: "It is a call for action". The Obama White House also says it is taking this new report as a call for action, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying, "The costs of inaction are catastrophic."

This report tells us that we have two clear choices: cut carbon emissions now, move to decarbonise our economies and invest in adaptation to a climate-changed world and have a world that has challenging and just barely manageable risks; or do nothing and face a world of devastating and unmanageable risks for millions of people.However, the report also makes it clear that we still have time to act. And action is the key issue. We can limit climate instability and adapt to some of the changes we see now, but without immediate and specific action, we are in danger of going far beyond the limits of adaptation.In other words, you fix the roof when it's sunny, when you have time – not when it starts rain heavily.In the end, the only question that matters is: what are we going to do about it?

Perhaps this is one way to think about how to deal with climate sceptics. Put aside their scientific counterclaims and let's focus on their politics.So what are the politics behind climate denial?
Well, it turns out to be a rather potent brand of populist, right-wing conservatism, in which climate science and climate politics are part of a 'left-wing' conspiracy, or justification for greater state 'interference' with personal freedoms.This turns out to be largely a defence of the free market, of unfettered capitalism, as can easily be seen by the right-wing credentials of well-known climate sceptics, such as Nigel Lawson, Bernard Monckton, or, more locally, former DUP minister Sammy Wilson, not one of whom has expertise in climate science, curiously enough, but are masters in the art of public rhetoric.

Or from the contagion of well-funded right-wing 'think tanks', whose main job is to produce 'junk science' and provide media-friendly climate denial positions and speakers.The political conservatism underpinning climate sceptics and deniers means that no amount of scientific facts, no increase in the number of scientists who agree that human beings burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change, will change their minds.

On the one hand, it is not so much to climate science that deniers reject, but the political and economic implications of action to adapt to a climate-changed world and action to reduce the causes of climate change. Namely, that we cannot continue to allow the unfettered free market to fry the planet, nor rampant consumerism to dominate our view of a decent human life.

On the other hand – and this seems to be the case from studies in America and Australia – for many climate sceptics "climate change" is not about the climate at all, but a cypher for a whole host of attitudes and policies that are objectionable from a conservative point of view.These include – take your pick – the growing secularisation of society, marriage for gay people and demands for greater equality, including gender equality.Social science research tells us climate scepticism is rooted in people's core values and world views.

In short, people who believe in the fiction of the "invisible hand of the free market" are unlikely to be persuaded by ever more compelling scientific facts and peer-reviewed research.They simply do not care about the science. Thinking even more scientific certainty will make them change their minds and get out of the way for those of us who wish to tackle the problem and secure a habitable planet for the future is like being in a foreign country and naively thinking speaking English in a louder voice will make you understood.

The issue is the politics and action of what we do in response to climate change and this means more politics and ethics – not necessarily more science. Or, at least, we cannot continue the naive and dangerous strategy of relying on science alone to somehow do the heavy lifting of what is essentially a political struggle; a hearts and minds struggle between reactionary and progressive visions of the future.That's why one of the better reactions to Monday's report was from US Secretary of State Kerry: "Let's make our political system wake up and let's make the world respond."When it comes to climate change scepticism, it's the politics, stupid.

The latest IPCC report is a call to ignore those voices urging inaction, or fiddling while the planet burns.