60 February 2015
C
LIMATE change is the biggest
issue of our age. It seems likely
to leave a legacy for future gen-
erations that will mean our
epoch will be remembered pri-
marily for its stupidity and spendthrift
environmental profligacy. It is generally
accepted that to stabilise CO2 concen-
trations about 450ppm by 2050, which
might avert runaway global warming, we
must reduce greenhouse gas emissions
by 60% of their 1990 level by 2050.
Because rich countries have spent
the proceeds of two hundred years of
carbon-squandering in enriching their
societies and their infrastructure it is
generally accepted they must reduce by
at least 80% over the period. Ireland is
a rich, educated country blessed with a
youthful, dynamic and imaginative pop-
ulation. Young people are our future and
climate change is our legacy to youth. So
what does the climate bill, its once-in-
a-generation incarnation – delayed now
for seven years since the Greens first put
it in a Programme for Government, and
having been through at least four itera-
tions, do about it?
The Bill purports to establish how our
transition towards a low-carbon econ-
omy will be achieved. There will be a
National Mitigation Plan (to lower green-
house-gas emissions) and a National
Adaptation Framework (to deal with
the changes that climate change will
bring). These two plans will be renewed
every five years, They will embrace tai-
lored sectoral plans for all government
departments.
While there are no explicit targets set
out, the legislation obliges the State to
“take into account any existing obligation
of the State under the law of the European
Union or any international agreement”
– a reiteration of mandatory EU targets
to which all Europe is bound.
The Bill formally obliges, or rather
reiterates the obligation, of the State to
adhere to EU targets such as an 80 per-
cent reduction in emissions by 2050
over 1990 levels and a 20% reduction
in emissions by 2020 over 1995 levels.
But it allows for a delay of up to two years
before any plan is instigated: fully nine
years after the UK Act.
This compares with the 2008 UK Act
which provides for the 80% reduction
in greenhouse gases by 2050, but also
that emissions reduce by 26% by 2020.
Regrettably overall the Irish Climate
Bill seems like a washout – of non-bind-
ing ‘commitments’, legislation that has
none of the characteristics of legisla-
tion. Homeopathy for the truly sick.
Gratuitous and cynical.
In essence it provides that Government
shall endeavour to achieve the national
climate objectives’. The UK legislation
notably says: “The Environment Minister
has the duty to ensure” objectives. The
nub of the matter is that if the Taoiseach
(or Environment Minister) has a duty
to ensure 3 percent reductions every
year (say) then individuals and worthy
groups can probably sue the Taoiseach
(or Environment Minister) for failures,
possibly even injuncting her.
Clear, aggressive targets, and teeth
are basically all that this Act required
and the failure to provide either makes
it useless. The drafters of the bill and the
vested interests who lobbied for it to be
toothless must know it is froth so it’s not
helpful or credible to pretend otherwise.
Agriculture, energy-supply and develop-
ment interests know exactly what “shall
endeavour”, “shall have regard to” etc
mean in the context: nothing.
Climate Act wording which stated
“The Taoiseach has the legal obligation
to ensure compliance with the strict tar-
gets set out in this Act” and which could
include the phrase “for the avoidance of
doubt, applications for judicial review
of compliance with the targets set out in
this bill, including for injunctive relief,
may be made by interested parties”, or
some such would present third parties
with a right to go to court if the targets
referred to are breached. The risk of liti-
gation would concentrate official minds
on compliance.
In passing it is worth pausing to
note that the Greens’ bill, about which
much was made in the dying days of
the 2007-11 coalition, was not much
better.
Illegal behaviour can already expressly
be challenged in the courts by third par-
ties in the case of planning legislation
and under EPA and water legislation.
The Bill also proposes the establish-
ment of an expert advisory council of
between nine and 11 members which to
make recommendations to the Minister
for the Environment.
Its chair will be independent but it will
include the top officials from the EPA,
Teagasc, Sustainable Energy Ireland
and the ESRI, but not campaigning
environmentalists such as the Irish
Environmental Network, at least ex offi-
cio. Unlike the Fiscal Advisory Group
the legislation does not even bother to
Lacking any new targets or any teeth the
Climate Bill is useless and environmental NGOs
should have said so. By Michael Smith
ENVIRONMENT EMISSIONS
Climbdown
The Climate
Bill seems like
a washout - of
non-binding
‘commitments’
“
target
February 2015 61
another two years.
Oisín Coghlan said it was deeply dis-
appointing the Bill had ignored the
proposals of the Oireachtas Committee.
“The Bill does not include a definition of
low carbon, it doesn’t guarantee the inde-
pendence of the Council, and it doesn’t
include the principles of climate justice,”
he said. His comments are reflected in
the press releases of SCC. An Taisce took
some weeks to think about the situation
and then followed the SCC line.
The comments are tangential to the
main issue which is the failure to provide
teeth for the enforcement of aggressive
targets.
The views are amateurish which is
surprising coming from groups which,
if they stand for anything, oppose ama-
teurishness in climate science. No-one
thought to get a legal opinion on the
matter. An interesting opinion for those
concerned is that of Dr Peter Doran for
Ceartas, though for some reason he
works on the premise that justiciability
is not desirable.
So, for example, the definition of low
carbon is significantly less important
than, indeed a subsidiary component
of the need for, aggressive targets; the
Council itself and its advice would be
of little interest if the Government was
legally obliged to meet aggressive tar-
gets and risked being sued for failure;
and justice, though crucial, is hardly a
central issue when the Bill aspires to so
little environmentally about which it
would be imperative to be just. The “key
issues” isolated by campaigners are in
fact a sideshow.
It is not surprising government feels it
can pander to vested interests, and that
the public feels unscandalised and con-
fused, when the campaigners are not
conveying the central message: no new
targets and no teeth Not of course that
the task is easy or that it is done better
in other countries.
The Bill now goes to the Dáil in the
week of February 9.
As the Government has ignored
the recommendations of the all-party
Oireachtas environment committee,
SCC says it will be calling on TDs and
Senators to fix the Bill and pass it into
law as quickly as possible.
Friends of the Earth wrote to its mem-
bers advising that “the Government
published its long-awaited Climate Bill
last week. Thanks to you. Only the pres-
sure of our collective campaigning has
kept climate change on the political
agenda during the recession”.
If indeed that is true, remaining on
the agenda has not been enough. If we
divorce ourselves from the need for self-
gratulation and voguish positivity the
Climate Bill, in the absence of any focus
on targets and teeth, achieves precisely
nothing. •
Clear,
aggressive
targets, and
teeth are
basically all
that this Act
required and
the failure
to provide
either makes it
useless
“
state that the council will be independ-
ent. The Minister will not be obliged to
follow its advice although he or she will
be required to make an annual transition
statement to the Dáil.
Environment Minister Alan Kelly
said the Bill gave a “solid statutory
foundation” and noted: “It is impor-
tant that developed countries such as
Ireland provide leadership in terms of
their contribution and the framework
underpinned by this bill will enable such
a response to be developed well into the
future”.
On the other hand spokesman for
Stop Climate Chaos (SCC), the leading
climate NGO alliance, Oisin Coghlan,
said: “This legislation is urgent, Ireland
is already off-track and without climate
action plan. It’s now up to TDs and sena-
tors to fix this bill and pass it into law as
quickly as possible”.
Aid agency Trócaire also criticised
the bill, with executive director Eamonn
Meehan saying a national mitigation
plan would not be produced until 2017.
Indeed this two-year delay is arguably
the only substantive change from the
draft Bill produced by Phil Hogan a year
ago. The Government has delayed the
adoption of a national mitigation plan
with sectoral policy measures by at least
teeth

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