Cycling the high road to put the spotlight on climate change
A LOCAL climate ambassador cycled from Tallaght to Glasgow for the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference and, now home, hopes the learnings, discussions and commitments made will move up a gear.
Gar Tyrrell, a former Tallaght Person of the Year, took on the 450km cycle to the global summit, which he attended as a representative of An Taisce’s Environmental Education Unit.
Now home and reflecting on the two-week conference, Gar hopes that discussion around climate change continues on a local, national and international level.
“COP26 is not the only game in town,” Gar told The Echo.
“Climate change is an ongoing process.
“Some small steps were made at COP26, but not enough . . . and it’s about what happens now that everyone is gone home.”
Gar biked it to Glasgow with friend and An Taisce colleague Richard Curtain, cycling from Tallaght to Belfast, and then ferrying across to Scotland.
“It was a great experience,” he said.
“We found ourselves on a lot of greenways, which was great.
“We had both been to [the COP21 conference in] Paris six years ago and wanted to go to Glasgow to see what’s happening and to be part of it, give our support and our voice.
“It was eye-opening.
“It was a huge event, and I got to go to some amazing, really cool, inspiring talks.
“I got to hear stories from people all over the world in relation to climate change and what they’re doing.
“This was probably one of the most important aspects for me, I got to bring home these stories and ideas to our Climate Ambassadors.”
While stressing the urgent need for countries to play their part and the responsibility on all nations to support each other in reaching targets, Gar believes that change can also happen at grassroots level.
Acknowledging that people can feel worried and overwhelmed by what could potentially happen in the future, Gar said that there is still time to turn things around.
“It’s really important that we all have things we can do ourselves,” Gar said.
“Change needs to come from young people, older people, all of us.
“On an individual level making small changes is good
. . . and all of these small changes will start adding up.
“The more we all talk about it, the better . . . talking about it, and normalising it.
“I know it can seem hopeless when we see the scale of climate change, but if we’re doing what we can, that will give hope.
“It’s also about listening, finding common ground and bringing people along.
“Young people, farmers, engineers, teachers. . . we need to make everyone feel that they have a voice in this, everyone can play a part.”
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which ended on November 12, brought world leaders together in an attempt to accelerate actions towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
