Great report
Rathlin, the island that dreams of championing ecology
Audio 7:30 p.m.
The community of Rathlin hopes to run its ferries on hydrogen, a clean energy, in less than ten years.
© Emeline Wine
By: Emeline Vin Follow
4 mins
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, decided to advance this objective by 20 years, and to become carbon neutral at the end of this decade, in order to pose as an ecological model.
(Rebroadcast from November 9, 2021)
Advertising
From our correspondent in Dublin,
The Rathlin Express, a small ferry with about sixty seats, connects 5 times a day the small town of Ballycastle, one hour from Belfast, to Rathlin Island.
14 kilometers from the coast, the island was built around the small port;
its tiny grocery store, its church, its pub and its 150 inhabitants.
The wharf is overlooked by impressive cliffs.
"
More than 200 species have been identified there,
" explains Liam McFaul, the island's ornithological guardian.
Guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, puffins.
The latter, a small 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 seabirds, as well as climate change: by warming the sea, it disrupts the food chain.
The appearance of invasive species on Rathlin, such as rats and ferrets, completes the threat to 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 next ones will ask us why no one protected them.
In addition to farming, 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 highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): the absence of basking sharks this year, the accumulation of sargassum on the beaches and the proliferation of increasingly violent storms.
Faced with these threats, the community development association of Rathlin 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 still have to have a generator.
If we manage to store this energy by producing hydrogen gas, then we will have a constant supply.
»
"
Maritime innovation is not just for big companies...
"
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 financed 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 the inhabitants will have to give up their old cars and have their homes re-insulated.
Near the beach, the souvenir shop has abandoned plastic.
In the port, a new business 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 boots and marinière, she admits that “
[her] boat has an old tractor engine
”, and that, to achieve carbon neutrality, it will have to be changed.
“
It's going to be expensive and the technology isn't perfect yet.
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 steep little piece of land.
“
We hope to offer an emission-free ferry crossing, housing, transport on the island as green as possible,
details Michael Cecil, of the community association.
That's what the tourists will 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 at Rathlin can do it, then everyone can do it.
According to the IPCC, small islands like Rathlin are most at risk from climate change.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
North Ireland
Climate change
Biodiversity
Pollution
Energies
On the same subject
A few days before COP26, Australia says it is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050
Environment
Green hydrogen, renewable energy from the Far North
Great report
Sargassum in Martinique, the seaweed that rots life