Duncan Stewart urges Athlone to make progress on climate

During a visit to Athlone last week, broadcaster Duncan Stewart challenged teachers and local community representatives to help make progress on reducing the town's carbon footprint in the short term.

The host of RTE's Eco Eye was in town on Thursday, March 24, for a series of events organised in conjunction with the Arcadia Creative Climate Awards.

At a talk for teachers and other community members in Dead Centre Brewing that evening, Mr Stewart said the size, location, transport connectivity and industrial profile of Athlone meant it had the potential to become a progressive, low-carbon urban centre.

"Duncan Stewart put down a challenge to the room that he wanted to see what Athlone will do in the next three years to put itself in a better place from an environmental perspective.

"So it was given an immediacy - it's not about 2050, or 2030 - it's about what we can do this year or next year to make a difference," commented Fiachra McLoughlin of Arcadia Retail Park.

The broadcaster also spoke about what a low-carbon future might look like. He highlighted Athlone's suitability for being a climate-friendly town, given its size, the location of the greenway, and the fact that its large-scale businesses are generally in the areas of electronics and pharmaceuticals as opposed to heavy manufacturing.

Taking advantage of the good weather, Mr Stewart began his day in Athlone by cycling on the greenway. Along with some students from Athlone Community College, Our Lady's Bower and Ard na Grath National School, he pedalled to the Radisson Blu Hotel, where he viewed the location for the forthcoming greenway bridge.

He then went to Athlone Civic Centre to meet the representatives of local schools who are part of Cllr Frankie Keena's 'Junior Mayors' initiative.

The Arcadia Creative Climate Awards competition was open to both primary and secondary schools, and attracted entries from six primary-level and three second-level schools. In person in the civic centre, and online on Zoom, students last week talked through the details of their project with the Eco Eye presenter.

"Quite a few of the schools would have gotten the whole school involved in their project," explained Fiachra McLoughlin.

"There was a great level of enthusiasm from the students, and they had various classes participating in litter packing or in monitoring what was in their lunch boxes in terms of single-use plastics and things like that."

Entries to the competition closed in December and Mr Stewart and two other judges, Noel Gavigan and Therese Kelly, now have to make the difficult decision of choosing the winning primary and secondary school. The winners will be announced during the month of April.

Mr McLoughlin said the level of interest the awards inspired meant they would be returning in some form next year.

"We will be looking to build on this next year, and I think more schools will want to enter," he said.

Cllr Frankie Keena praised the roll-out of the awards which he said were made possible by the "marvellous sponsorship" of Arcadia Retail Park.

"The main reason that I set up the schools' Junior Mayor initiative was to give young people a voice, and what better way to do this is for them to participate in the Arcadia Climate Awards," he said.

"Duncan Stewart's visit to Athlone went off great with fantastic engagement from the students who spoke about their respective school climate projects with him.

"The standard of the entries from the schools is really strong and diverse, and I would like to commend all the students and staff for their excellent work."