Sinéad Mercier: Environment and Just Transition

Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode we speak to Sinéad Mercier. Sinéad is a lecturer in Environmental Law & Policy and PhD Researcher in the Sutherland School of Law in UCD with the PROPERTY [IN]JUSTICE project led by Amy Strecker and Amanda Byer. We discuss Sinéad’s political background, her engagement with Trade Unionism and work with ICTU; environmental campaigning, how environmentalism has developed in Ireland, and some of the campaigns and groups that have played a role in that; Sinéad’s previous experience in environmental law and as a policy researcher with Senator Alice Mary Higgins and with the Green Party; and the contrast between an environmentalism still embedded in colonialism and capitalism and a genuinely transformative socialist environmentalism and Just Transition.

Sinéad’s paper, “Four Case Studies on Just Transition: Lessons for Ireland”, can be found on the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) website . The discussion also mentions Adrian Kane’s book, Trade Unions , published by Cork University Press . Listeners can find the Not Here Not Anywhere campaign to end fossil fuel infrastructure and exploration at notherenotanywhere.com.