Children's Rights Over Flights

@rightoverflight.bsky.social

122 Followers 22 Following

We want to see children’s rights prioritized above polluting flights. Every sector needs to play its part in tackling climate change, including aviation. Increasing flights is reckless in the face of the climate emergency.

People of Ireland! #YourJourneyCounts Except of course if you’re this guy! Our Minister for Transport & Climate chose to FLY to Kerry this week. The most recklessly polluting journey he could possibly choose. Even as Europe burns. Our Dept of Transport tells us: ‘Every sustainable journey helps reduce Ireland’s transport emissions.’
Sir, – I see reports on social media that a group of mothers from North Dublin hand-delivered a giant letter to Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien during the week calling on him not to remove the passenger cap at Dublin. The group, Children’s Rights Over Flights, is concerned about the effects increased flights will have on their children’s health. None of the mainstream media picked up the story, and I haven’t heard any response from the Minister. What I have heard all week is people saying that the hot weather we’re experiencing is due to climate change caused by fossil fuels. And that it is going to get hotter. It is surely blatantly obvious that rather than scrapping the cap at Dublin Airport, the Minister should be looking for ways to reduce the number of flights. – Yours, etc, ART Ó LAOGHAIRE, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Dear Minister O'Brien We write to urgently remind you there is a worsening climate and biodiversity emergency that threatens every child's future. Protecting kids from the worst of climate harms depends on rapid cuts to fossil fuel pollution. You are obliged to do this to prioritize their welfare. Instead by pursuing a reckless plan to remove limits to Dublon Airport passenger numbers you are forgetting them. Your bill will lead to more fossil fuel pollution when aviation pollution is already out of control. Kids need real action to give them the best chance we can, but instead your bill would do them even more harm. Kids need you to remember there is a climate emergency and their rights demand it. On behalf of the children in our lives.
Activists deliver large person-sized hand-written letter in giant envelope titled Urgent - Minister for Climate. Others hold signs "Kids need climate action not airport expansion", "Stop aviation emissions from rising - Keep the Cap", "Children's rights not future flights"
Sir, - In case it has escaped anyone's attention, our Minister for Climate, Darragh O'Brien, is on the one hand shelling out grants for EVs to save burning fossil fuels, while at the same time removing the passenger cap to increase flying — our most heavily fossil- fuel burning form of transport - under pressure, it seems, from US airlines. - Yours, etc, CELESTINE O'REILLY, Foxrock, Dublin 18.
ir, – In the article “Ryanair cuts fares to maintain demand,” (May 18th), we read that Ryanair is lowering summer fares to attract more passengers, dismissing fears of a fuel shortage as “almost zero”. This optimism, however, applies only to the airline’s privileged position. While Ryanair has hedged 80 per cent of its fuel needs and sits on more than €2 billion in cash, a severe global fuel crisis is unfolding elsewhere. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has created a shortage of fuel for essential needs worldwide. As fuel prices soar, energy poverty is spreading now, with food insecurity looming in the coming months. And yet again, it is the most vulnerable who are worst affected – those who have never been on an aeroplane and never will be. Yet Ryanair’s response is not to ground fleets or conserve more fuel, but rather to slash prices to keep the wealthy few flying. This is capitalism at its finest: extracting profit and maintaining “business as usual” at all costs while the rest of the world faces an unprecedented fuel crisis. We must choose: use this crisis to shift toward a truly sustainable, healthier and fairer society for all, or continue prioritising cheap holiday flights to the sun over human survival. – Yours, etc, Ola Løkken Nordrum, South Lotts Rd, Dublin
10 Measures to Stop Airport Expansion & Reduce Air Traffic Stay Grounded. Let's end the most destructive and pointless flights and make way for a fair and liveable future for all.
The energy crisis is the climate crisis Join the protest! Wednesday April 22nd, 5:30pm, Leinster House
Image of airplane with slogan "Your Journey Counts" and text "Flying less is one of the most impactful things any of us can do to give our kids a better chance for their future. #YourJourneyCounts
Sir, – Your report on US airlines demanding the “immediate removal” of the passenger cap at Dublin Airport highlights an increasingly troubling dynamic in international aviation policy and diplomacy (“US airlines demand immediate removal of Dublin Airport passenger cap,” March 14th) . With Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the United States, it is timely to recall a principle that both Ireland and the United States regularly invoke in other contexts: the rule of law and judicial process. The dispute over the Dublin Airport passenger cap has already entered the legal arena. Proceedings initiated by airlines, including the US trade group Airlines for America (A4A), were referred by the Irish High Court to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In February, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in Luxembourg, advocate general Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordonaan advised that such a passenger cap could legitimately be considered an operational constraint within EU slot allocation rules. In that context, the increasingly explicit lobbying by US airlines for the Irish Government to legislate immediately, before the European court has delivered its judgment, raises uncomfortable questions. It risks appearing as an attempt to pre-empt or circumvent an ongoing judicial process. More striking still is that the lobbying is not confined to Irish policy debates. Airlines for America has also sought intervention from the US Department of Transportation and even threatened retaliatory measures against Irish carriers serving the United States.
What you should know about the Bill to remove the Dublin Airport passenger cap
Protestors holding up signs - Keep the passenger cap, Children's Rights Over Flights, Children's Rights not Future Flights
For a round trip 370 between Paris and Montreal (12,000km) without fossil fuel, approximately 360 liters of fossil kerosene per passenger would need to be replaced by one of the following alternatives: - 370 liters of used cooking oil: about two month's collection from a fast food restaurant - 1,000m2 of lignocellulosic crops: equivalent to 4 tennis counrts of annual harvest - 1,800 kg of firewood or wood waste: enough wood to heat a well-insulated home for a winter - 8,000 kWh of electricity: twice the annual electricity user of a typical French household
HE IRISH TIMES Sir, - What connects floods, flying and the Minister for Climate, Energy, Environment and Transport, Darragh O'Brien? Flooding is increasing due to climate change. Flying is the single most detrimental activity in terms of climate effects. O'Brien wants to increase flying by removing the passenger cap at Dublin Airport. Is this what's called joined-up thinking? - Yours, etc, CELESTINE O'REILLY Foxrock.
airplane emitting large amounts of polluting smoke
Graph showing impact of different actions, flying less is second from the top. Source World Resources Institute
Flying in the face of climate change Sir, – Regarding Conor Pope’s article “How to maximise your annual leave in 2026 and hit the hotspots at the right time.” January 6th: This article is utterly irresponsible in encouraging readers to fly to four or five destinations throughout the year – given the climate apocalypse we’re facing if we don’t slash greenhouse gas emissions urgently and the fact that flying is the most polluting thing that the average individual does in terms of causing these emissions. There is only one reference in the article – and a very casual one at that – to the climate impact of aviation, where the author suggests that the reader consider a staycation in June “cutting down on your carbon footprint and saving yourself a few bob on flights and accommodation too”. If the author is going to include the cost of flights, he should include the cost in terms of greenhouse gas pollution too. For instance, that return Dublin/Rome flight may cost ¤179 per person. But in terms of carbon emissions, the cost is about half a tonne. Including the carbon pollution information would help readers understand the cost of flights to their future and particularly the future of their children, generations to come and indeed, and to people in Ireland and around the world who are at the frontlines of the crisis (like the people of Midleton, Co Cork). – Yours, etc, ANGELA DEEGAN, Dublin 7.
Graph showing emissions from electricity, transport and heat, with transport shown with and without international aviation.
Demand Children's rights are prioritised over endless flights. Sign the petition.
Quilt on RTE news screen
Montage of people at demonstration with climate placards, including one reading "Kids need more Kites less Flights"
Embroidered square with a child and a woman holding the earth, saying "Children's Rights Not More Flights"
Responsible travel? Sir, - Saturday’s article, “Lessons learned from visiting 59 countries”, is an echo-chamber of encouragement to those who continue to fly despite the climate crisis (Magazine, October 26th). Flying is a highly greenhouse gas-emitting activity. With so much disinformation and misinformation around climate change on social media, we badly need newspapers that are truly “in- formed and responsible”. - Yours, etc, CO’REILLY, Dublin 18.
Come and stand up for kids with us! We'll be at the National Climate Demo, Sat 15th Nov 1pm. We'll be matching for the climate action kids need NOW. ALL sectors must act - INCLUDING aviation. Join us! #EndFossilPower #ForEveryChild
Sir , – Minister Darragh O’Brien’s Department of Transport has identified a “funding gap” for Public Service Obligations (PSO) of €250 million. The PSO imposes an obligation on the Government to shore up routes that might not be commercially successful, but are nonetheless considered essential, especially in rural areas. These include BusConnects and the “connecting Ireland rural mobility plan,” the Young Adult Card and the 90-minute fare free child fares inclusion of those aged five to eight-years old. Acknowledging that it is not “fiscally responsible” to maintain such a deficit, the Department proposed a new “sustainable funding model” to “plug the gap”. The alternatives offered are an increase in public transport fares, cutting public transport services or taking €250 million a year away from National Development Plan infrastructure projects. An alternative would be for Mr O’Brien to reinstate the €10 tax on airline tickets imposed by minister for transport Noel Dempsey in 2009 but cancelled by his successor Leo Varadkar in 2014. Ireland is in a minority worldwide in not imposing any airline tax. Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands maintain airport taxes ranging from €29 to €42 per passenger, while even the United States imposes a passenger facility charge (PFC) which averages €37. All increase according to distance. The UK’s short-haul tax is a modest €15 air passenger duty (APD) for short-haul economy class fares, with an increase in taxes in April 2025 and again in April 2026 which will include a 50 per cent increase on private jets – from €673 to €1,141. A flight from Dublin to Rome attracts no tax. Returning you will contribute to another country’s climate efforts. Restoring the air travel tax could meet the funding gap required to maintain our Government’s commitment to public transport – and would also be a step towards climate justice. – Yours, etc, TONY LOWES, Friends of the Irish Environment, Co Cork.
= THE IRISH TIMES =» Airlines and emissions Sir, — I thoroughly enjoyed reading a letter today (September 17th) which laid out a history of Dublin Airports passenger numbers, and questioned how an expansion of the passenger cap on our nation’s largest airport is compatible with Ireland’s binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target of 51 per cent (based on 1990 levels) by 2030. Well, I have terrible news for everything on this planet (except perhaps the pockets of airlines and airport authority shareholders). An expansion of Dublin Airport's passenger numbers will have little effect on Ireland's GHG emissions because we, like most other countries in the world, do not count emissions generated by international flights towards our tally. This is because, as everyone knows, the emissions generated by a flight from say Dublin to Paris, cannot possibly be attributable to either Ireland or France while there is any opportunity for policymakers to shrug off responsibility. - Yours, etc, JACK WOGAN, Newcastle, Co Galway.
A child could tell you that the maths doesn't add up and that Dublin Airport's emissions levels will spiral if the planned trajectory is 60 million passengers. We have just experienced the warmest spring and summer ever according to Met Eireann. Someone has to put the brakes on, because this Government is clearly not serious about achieving the 2030 legally binding climate goal set by the EU of 51 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels. We all need to try to be at least conscious of our damaging impact on the environment by taking a flight. For instance, a return flight from Dublin to Paris emits approximately 484 kg to 490 kg of CO2 per passenger. I propose that airlines are mandated to publish emissions information when passengers are booking a flight and on boarding passes. This will improve awareness about the damaging environmental impact of flying and some may take climate action and decide not to fly. - Yours, etc, MARK FOX, Dublin 18.
The Irish Times. Lifting the cap. Sir, How disappointing to hear of the Government's plan to scrap the cap at Dublin Airport. Given that Ireland's carbon emissions from aviation are already increasing at a time of climate crisis, our Government taking this action is irresponsible. Air and nose pollution are also increasing as a result of more flights into and out of Dublin Airport. We are putting our children, grandchildren and future generations at greater peril by increasing our carbon emissions and pollution levels. You're etc Miriam Mooney Rathgar Dublin 6
International day to BAN NIGHT FLIGHTS at airports. Families no longer having a peaceful home... Communities not getting enough rest... Children not being able to get enought sleep... Even MORE harmful aviation pollution... should be #RedLinesForAirports
Children's Rights Over Flights activists with Anja Murray, Eco Eye presenter
Dublin Airport passenger cap. Sir, - It is terrifying to read that the Dublin Airport passenger cap has been temporarily suspended pending further judicial review (Court suspends Dublin Airport passenger cap beyond summer" News April 2nd). Whatever the original reasoning for the cap, what we are seeing now is a perfect example of perceived short term profit being prrioritised over human and planetary health. We live on a finite planet, Eternal economic growth and ever-increasing emissions simply aren't compatible with human health and wellbeing. The climate and biodiversity crisis is the biggest health challenge of the 21st century. It's time we started acting like it. - Yours etc Dr Ola Lokken Nordrum Irish Doctors for the Environment Dublin 4
March for Global Climate Justice 12pm Sat 16 November 2024 Garden of Remembrance Dublin