Earth Day Action Forum

Posted on: 22 April 2025

Since 1970, civil society movements, universities and unions around the world have mobilised for climate and environmental action annually. Trinity College Dublin has joined the Earth Month celebration with the Earth Action Day Forum which took place on April 9th in Trinity Business School. The Forum was an official activity of the EARTHDAY.ORG 2025 Map of Events.

The Earth Action Day Forum was a platform to openly discuss the opportunities and challenges of meeting Trinity's target of 51% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. Representatives from various groups including the Environmental Society, Patrick Flynn; Botanical Society, Finn McHugh; alumna Diana Kessler and Trinity COP29 delegate Emily Laverty along with Trinity Sustainability took part in the discussions. Special guest Peter Breen, Trinity's Carbon Reduction Manager, outlined the largest challenges ahead, including the substantial cost of the green transformation of Trinity. 

Event moderator and Trinity student representative of EARTHDAY.ORG said "It was a great opportunity to discuss the challenges of energy transformation for Trinity in an honest and collaborative way. Students need to be active participants in reducing the carbon footprint of our university." 

During the event, participants discussed which challenges and solutions were most significant to lowering carbon emissions.  They emphasised that the crucial part will be to provide funding for new energy technologies, and to take into account the relationship between possible donors and their environmental impact.

Furthermore, as Peter Breen suggested, there are technologies at hand like LED which can already make a significant difference. Trinity's energy use should be a case for study on its own, participants suggested.  The students' position is that our campus should be a model discussed during lectures and should be considered as part of the research. Lastly, the discussions ended with the perspective of the upcoming COP30 UN Climate Conference and how Trinity could use it as an opportunity to learn about new possibilities for reducing the carbon footprint of our university. 

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• Sustainability