The government publishes the climate action bill

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The Government has published its Climate Action Amendment Bill, which is legislation that promises to bring about a radical transformation of Ireland’s economy and society in the coming decades.

Today’s bill proposes some very significant changes to the current Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act of 2015.

The most significant amendment is that while the 2015 Law committed to the transition to a low-carbon economy and society, the new Climate Law incorporates a legally binding commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, introduces the carbon budget for the first time and substantially strengthens the climate. governance framework.

Climate neutrality means a sustainable economy in which greenhouse gas emissions will need to be balanced or exceeded by removing greenhouse gases through new forestry activities and other pathways, such as carbon capture and storage methods, that still have not developed.

The new bill also comes at the foot of the Oireachtas declaring a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019, as well as the 2019 Climate Action Plan published by former Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton, which was seen as a radical change in the Irish climate policy.

The commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050 will require Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by an average of 7% annually.

This is substantially more than the 3% reduction target set in the 2019 climate action plan. It also represents a very radical departure from Ireland’s previous approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which resulted in the country failing to achieve almost no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions despite legally binding emissions targets for 2020.

The Government Program undertook to publish this new Climate Law Project within the first 100 days of the new Government, a deadline that was reached earlier this week.

There has been quite a lot of consensus regarding the direction of climate policy and what should be included in the bill.

Its actions have been based on the recommendations set out in the Citizens Assembly Report on ‘How the State can make Ireland a leader in the fight against climate change’ and the 2019 Report of the Oireachtas Joint Climate Action Committee.

There was also agreement regarding the general direction of climate policy between the three parts of the Government Program.

The new legal commitment that Ireland will achieve climate neutrality by 2050 will be known as the “2050 National Climate Goal”.

The Carbon Budgets referred to in the Bill will establish limits for the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted in the State within a period of five years. They will cover all greenhouse gases and all sectors, including agriculture.

There will be a legal requirement for the government to adopt a series of three sequential five-year carbon budgets pooled and considered together. The budgets will be set for the economy as a whole and will incorporate decarbonization ranges for each sector of the economy.

A powerful new Advisory Council on Climate Change will be established on a statutory basis and it will be the job of this council to propose adequate carbon budgets.

The bill will also result in the National Climate Change Mitigation Plan being replaced by a new Climate Action Plan updated annually starting next year, as well as new National Long-Term Climate Action Strategies.

These new Climate Action Plans will provide a roadmap of actions that include sectoral actions aligned with the periods of the Carbon Budgets.

The bill also requires all local authorities to draw up their own climate action plans detailing their commitments to act to mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects, such as increased flooding and new extreme weather events.

These Local Authorities Climate Action Plans must be completed within 18 months of the bill’s promulgation, and no less than once every five years in the future.

A committee of Oireachtas will have the opportunity to consider the carbon budgets recommended by the government as part of the approval process for carbon budgets.

There will be more accountability agreements with ministers who will be held accountable for their performance towards sectoral objectives and actions to an Oireachtas committee each year.

The emission reduction target for 2050 is known in the bill as the “national climate goal for 2050”. The goal is for Ireland to commit to transitioning to a “climate-neutral and climate-resilient economy” by the end of 2050.

A “climate neutral economy” is defined in the bill as: “a sustainable economy in which greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or exceeded by eliminating emissions.” The “climate neutral” target is consistent with the approach of EU climate legislation and means a net zero target for all greenhouse gases.



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