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Displaying items by tag: Fight Climate Change

Residents of Rathlin Island off Co. Antrim are leading the way in the battle against climate change with communities on the island revealing ambitions to become carbon neutral.

In 2015 many countries pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by signing the Paris Agreement and the inhabitants of Rathlin have a ten year plan in place and are focusing on renewable enery, self-sufficiency, electric transport and a hyrdrogen ferry.  

Rathlin Island is Northern Ireland’s most important seabird colony and its surrounding seas are Marine Protected Areas, featuring reefs, sea caves and maritime cliffs.

Living in an area such as Rathlin necessitates a harmonious relationship with the surrounding environment, and islanders feel passionately about leading the way when it comes to becoming eco-friendly and fighting climate change.

For more from ITV News including footage from islanders and on plans to fuel future ferries that could also be battery powered. 

Currently the island is served by two ferries and as Afloat reported in 2016 the Spirit of Rathlin (car ferry) was custom built by Arklow Marine Services. 

Published in Island News

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago