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What We Read in February

There’s a lot happening at the intersection of environment, community, and business — and this collection of articles paints a vivid picture of where we are in the fight against climate change, right on our doorstep and beyond.

Starting close to home, the Belfast Telegraph shines a spotlight on Northern Ireland’s sustainability trailblazers — the businesses quietly doing things differently. Winners at the Business Eye Sustainability & ESG Awards included Wrightbus of Ballymena, named Sustainable Company of the Year for their world-leading zero-emission buses, and Stream BioEnergy, which converts 40,000 tonnes of poultry waste annually into enough renewable energy to power 6,000 homes. These aren’t outliers — they represent a growing movement of companies embedding sustainability into the core of what they do.

But as businesses forge ahead, our rivers are quietly telling a different story. The Guardian’s Country Diary offers a poignant, personal reflection on what it means to kneel by a river and simply hope the water is clean — a powerful reminder that for all our progress, water quality remains a deeply uncertain and emotional issue for many communities across the UK and Ireland.

On a more hopeful note, engineers and ecologists have been getting creative with mud. A remarkable restoration project reported by the Belfast Telegraph describes how dredged mud from Lymington Harbour on the south coast is being used to restore surrounding saltmarsh — an innovative scheme to protect the local economy and wildlife. The harbour’s saltmarsh had been eroding at two to three metres per year, but by cleverly repurposing the mud that would otherwise be dumped at sea, teams have produced really good quality saltmarsh growing in treated locations, with participants describing how over one winter it turned into a really quite exciting habitat. The team hopes this model can be replicated across the UK’s coastline.

Meanwhile, overseas development agency Trócaire has issued a stark warning ahead of Lent. Reported by Belfast Media, the charity highlights that climate change could push 132 million more people into poverty by 2030, with the burden falling disproportionately on women and girls. CEO Seán Farrell points out that women produce up to 80% of food in some regions but own less than 20% of agricultural land, and are 14 times more likely to die during an extreme weather event. The Trócaire Box Appeal this year focuses on Rwanda, where flooding is destroying homes and crops are failing, leaving women to hold everything together for their families.

Back in Belfast, there’s genuinely encouraging news on two fronts. East Belfast is set to receive a boost, as MSN reports that Eastside Greenways, in partnership with Belfast City Council and Queen’s University, secured funding from the National Lottery Climate Action Fund totalling £1.6 million, to be delivered over five years, using a 16km urban greenway to help people in disadvantaged areas connect meaningfully with climate action.

And in the best news of the lot — Belfast is officially punching above its weight on the world stage! The Irish News reports that Belfast has ranked among the world’s top cities for climate action transparency, earning an A- rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project — the highest-ranked city on the island of Ireland. Of over 1,000 cities assessed, only 119 achieved an A or A- grade. That achievement comes on the back of real initiatives: a Climate Action Plan, net zero neighbourhoods, solar energy projects, and a Sustainable Food Partnership.

So yes, the challenges are real and pressing — from threatened coastal habitats to the gendered injustice of climate change. But from Belfast’s boardrooms to its backstreets, the story is also one of creativity, community, and ambition.


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