Rathlin, the small island that wanted to achieve carbon neutrality
Audio 19:30
The community of Rathlin hopes to run their ferries on clean energy hydrogen within a decade.
© Emeline Wine
By: Emeline Vin
4 min
Six years ago, the Paris climate agreement set the goal of reducing global CO2 emissions to 0 by 2050. The small island of Rathlin, in the very north of Northern Ireland, has decided to advance this 20-year objective, and to become carbon neutral at the end of this decade, in order to establish itself as an ecological model.
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From our correspondent in Dublin,
The Rathlin Express, a small ferry with around 60 seats, connects the small town of Ballycastle, an hour from Belfast, to Rathlin Island 5 times a day.
14 kilometers from the coast, the island was built around the small port;
its tiny grocery store, church, pub and 150 inhabitants.
The quay is overlooked by impressive cliffs.
“
There are over 200 species recorded there,”
explains Liam McFaul, the island's ornithological guardian.
Murres, razorbills, fulmars, puffins.
"The latter, a little black and white bird with a colorful beak, is a mascot in Rathlin, but"
the population has been declining for 15 or 20 years,
"he laments.
Plastic pollution explains the gradual disappearance of sea birds, as well as climate change: by heating the sea, it disrupts the food chain.
The appearance of invasive species on Rathlin, such as the rat and the ferret, end up threatening the birds.
Liam McFaul knows by heart the island where he was born… and its feathered inhabitants.
“
If our generation does nothing, they will disappear from the planet.
And the following ones will ask us why no one protected them.
In addition to his farming activity, he works for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to conserve species on the island.
Around the port, all the inhabitants notice the impact of climate change, already underlined by the intergovernmental group of experts on the climate (IPCC): the absence of basking sharks this year, the accumulation of sargassum on the beaches and the sea. multiplication of storms, more and more violent.
Faced with these threats, the Rathlin community development association has set itself a goal: to become carbon neutral by 2030. Michael Cecil, president of the association, is counting on solar or wind energy: “
we can still produce renewable energy, but you can't store it and you always have to have a generator. If we manage to store this energy by producing hydrogen gas, then we will have a constant supply.
"
Hydrogen technology is still in its infancy, but the association is about to finalize its comparative studies, for the start of a pilot project next year (2022), which it hopes to see funded by the local government ... With 14 tonnes of CO2 per year per capita, Rathlin emits almost twice as much as the rest of the UK, mainly due to ferry crossings. Michael Cecil hopes to "
run the ferries, the vehicles, heat our homes with hydrogen
", but residents will have to give up their old cars and re-insulate the homes.
Near the beach, the souvenir shop has given up on plastic. In the port, a new company has emerged: Islander Rathlin Kelp. Its founder, Kate Burns, came up with the idea of producing food kelp: "
it absorbs carbon and can solve some problems in global food production
". The former consultant had to learn everything, on the job: "
I wanted to show that maritime innovation is not only for large companies, it must also work for small communities
".
Plastic and sailor-style boots, she admits that "
[her] boat has an old tractor machine
", and that, to achieve carbon neutrality, it will have to be changed.
“
It's going to be expensive, and the technology is not yet developed.
But obviously we want to be able to go and harvest our kelp without emitting anything.
"
The key to carbon neutrality: a tourist asset.
7 out of 10 visitors come to Rathlin for the birds, and to enjoy this craggy little piece of land.
"
We hope to offer an emission-free ferry crossing, housing, transport on the island as green as possible,"
explains Michael Cecil, of the community association.
That's what tourists want, it's going to work in Rathlin's favor
.
"
The president also hopes, of course, to pose as a model.
“
It would be so much easier to let others do it.
But if we in Rathlin can do it, then anyone can.
According to the IPCC, small islands like Rathlin are the most threatened by climate change.
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