The Speak Out Script
Okay, I’d imagine everyone here knows something about the dangers of climate change, right?
But I wonder how many of you knew that Ireland is the worst performing European Country on the Climate Change Performance Index?
If we fail to act NOW, by 2030 global flooding could triple, by 2040 the arctic circle will have its first ice free summer, and by 2050 we’ll see huge famines, droughts, and more worldwide.
Despite considering ourselves a forward-thinking country, Ireland is failing badly to keep up with the MANDATORY climate guidelines from the Paris Climate Agreement.
This is because Ireland still relies on fossil fuel companies to provide our energy, instead of supporting community projects to develop renewable energy.
If we’re gonna play our part in saving the planet, it’s clear Ireland needs to change our focus from fossil fuels to renewables. We believe communities coming together to take action is the perfect way to start.
Our Off Grid Project’s goal is to install solar panels in our school, and educate our community about renewable energy. Through this, we hope to publicly promote our message of school and community action for the environment.
As we’ll be the first group of Irish students to achieve anything like this, we’ve used our progress to push for policy change in the government. We have met with TDs and City Councillors, and even attended an Oireachtas Meeting on Climate Action to spread our message.
Installing a small solar system in our school costs 6,600 euro. This is an ambitious figure, but we’ve already raised 5,000euro towards this.
We were the first student group ever to meet with our School Board of Management, who promised to fund half of the solar panels (3,300 euro)
We then raised 1000 euro by running a non-uniform day in our school, where we wore suits to creatively advocate for our project. We were also awarded 1000 euro at the YSI Den, and we’re setting up sponsored runs and bag-packing fundraisers to raise the remaining money.
We’ve developed an intuitive and modern website to educate others on this social issue in Ireland, and to blog every step of our project’s journey
We’ve designed a creative phone app to teach others how to install renewable energy in their own community or school.
We’ve worked on all social media platforms to communicate with our community, and update our followers on our progress
We are working with the Sustainable Energy Authority to set up a Sustainable Energy Community in our area, to plan and support renewable energy projects in our locality for years to come.
Off Grid has never just been about our school. It’s never even just been about solar panels. Our project has always been about calling for small communities to make a change. It’s up to you to make a difference