No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth are going to the Court of Appeal, and we need your help! 

No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth have lodged an appeal with the Court of Appeal to continue their legal challenge against the Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) over plans for a controversial and destructive gas storage project under Larne Lough. 

Background  

No Gas Caverns campaign group in Islandmagee and Friends of the Earth are continuing to campaign to protect Northern Ireland from unnecessary new fossil fuel infrastructure that will impact on our natural environment, wildlife and trap us into long term reliance on fossil fuels.  

You might remember that we took the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to court earlier this year in relation to the decision to allow 7 enormous gas caverns (each the size of a skyscraper) under the seabed in Larne Lough. The decision to grant consent has implications for the whole of Northern Ireland, not only in terms of environmental impact, but is contrary to UK Government commitments to phase out the use of natural gas.   

In August 2023 the Judge dismissed our claim, which allows this climate and nature wrecking project to go ahead. Not deterred by this decision, Friends of the Earth and No Gas Caverns are bringing this case back to court.  

We need your support to fight this decision. The papers have been lodged with the Court of Appeal and we are working hard behind the scenes with our legal teams preparing for the Appeal to be heard. With your help we can fight to make sure the protection of our natural environment is put first. 

The Appeal 

There are principal grounds of challenge on appeal, namely: 

1. The failure to refer the applications to the Executive Committee (Ground 1); and  

2. The taking into account of an irrelevant consideration, namely the community fund (Ground 2) 

To read more about our grounds of appeal, visit our press briefing here

With your support No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth can together continue the campaign to protect our beautiful coastline, its communities and wildlife. The costs to go back to court are significant. Cases like these take months of work from our legal teams and campaigners, and are only possible through the generous support of people like you.

Why should you support this important challenge?

This facility will not provide an immediate answer to the energy crisis, as it will take up to 12 years to be fully operational. During its operational phase, these caverns will be one of Northern Ireland’s largest energy users.   

The discharge from the mining process to create the caverns will be pumped out into the sea surrounding Islandmagee and will create a 'dead zone' where no marine life can survive.  

And this is in an area where eleven Northern Ireland Priority Species (protected under legislation) are found within 100 metres of the polluting waste discharge point. In addition, there will be negative impacts on sensitive species for several kilometres because of increased salinity. The impact on wildlife will be catastrophic. 

Waste will also continue to be dumped periodically for cavern maintenance during its 40-year life expectancy.    

This Court of Appeal court case will send strong signals to government and fossil fuel companies that we do not give up and this campaign to stop them is far from over! 

Thank you so much for your support