The Mary Robinson Centre, in partnership with Mayo County Council’s Climate Action Office hosted a unique event on May 30th, bring together trail-blazers in research and innovation, developing solutions for the climate and biodiversity crisis.
Mayo Changemakers will showcase those from the county who are in leadership roles in local and global communities.
The event received national coverage from Kevin O’Sullivan here:
Ballyhaunis native, Dr. David Connolly was delighted to present at the event in the Ballina Arts Centre. As a former CEO of Wind Energy Ireland, and a former associative professor in energy planning at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark, David is currently the chief technology officer with Astatine, who specialise in decarbonising heat for Irish businesses.
In advance of the event, he told the Western People that he was very much looking forward to meeting a diverse collection of people and the conversation it would provoke around Ireland’s energy and heat usage, David was also delighted to be having this conversation at home in Mayo.
“You can go every-where around the world but home is home. You learn a lot of things about the world when you’re away but it always comes back to your home. So many things I’ve ever experienced remind me of home, not how it is but how it could be”.
“I was in a town in western Denmark about 10 years ago and the town was exactly like Ballyhaunis but they had about a thousand people working in a wind energy factory”. They were two similar towns and one has hundreds working in green energy”. “I would hope to bring back some of our learnings to show how this is not just an opportunity to reduce carbon by moving to clean and green but it is also a cost and economic benefits opportunity”.
Among the other speakers were Alan Mee of the World Mosquito Programme; Celine Reilly, director of Vita International and former executive manager at Dublin City Council; Sean Carolan of Mulrany Decarbonising Community, among others. The event was open to anyone engaged in climate and biodiversity and those interested in learning more.
Further details of this and future events can be found online at www.maryrobinsioncentre.ie
Original Article by Paul O’Malley – Western People Newspaper
