Climate Action Plan 2024 fails to comply with climate law and binding carbon budgets

October-November 2024 55

Climate Action Plan 2024 fails

to comply with climate law and

binding carbon budgets

CLM’s landmark human

rights challenge to

inadequate Government

action on climate

change is proceeding at

the High Court

By Justine Schönfeld-Quinn

groundbreaking climate case was

launched this September, by

Community Law and Mediation

(CLM), an independent community

law centre founded in 1975,

claiming that the government has failed to take

eﬀective action on climate change.

The case marks the ﬁrst time that Community

Law and Mediation (CLM) has brought

proceedings in its own name in its ﬁfty-year

history. The law centre, based in Coolock in

Dublin, together with three co-plaintiﬀs — a

grandfather, a youth climate activist, and a

child — were granted leave to judicially review

the government’s 2024 Climate Action Plan by

Judge Richard Humphreys on 9 September.

It is also among the ﬁrst climate cases in

Europe to invoke human rights since the

European Court of Human Rights handed down

its landmark judgment in April 2024, in Verein

KlimaSeniorinnen also known as the “Swiss

grannies” case, establishing that inadequate

action on climate change by States violates

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human

Rights .

The proceedings allege that in failing to

comply with Ireland’s climate legislation and

legally binding carbon budgets, the Climate

Action Plan 2024 violates the fundamental

rights of marginalised people whom

Community Law and Mediation (CLM)

represents, those of future generations, and

the rights of three named individuals. Among

the remedies sought is a declaration that the

recent Climate Action Plan 2024 breaches

Ireland’s framework climate law (the Climate

ENVIRONMENT

CLM’s judicial review of the government’s

2024 Climate Action Plan is among the ﬁrst

climate cases in Europe to invoke human

rights since the European Court of Human

Rights handed down its landmark judgment

in April 2024 in the “Swiss grannies” case

and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 as

amended). The case will be in court again on 7

October, 2024.

A separate case was brought by Friends of

the Irish Environment (FIE) with the support of

CLM, concerning the Climate Action Plan 2023,

and will be heard on 28 January 2025. These

follow a successful case brought by FIE before

the Supreme Court in 2020 (“Climate Case

Ireland”), in which the Supreme Court quashed

the national mitigation plan for failing to

specify how it would achieve the national

transition objective, as mandated by the 2015

Act. It raised similar issues to those addressed

by the High Court of England and Wales, in two

framework cases which concluded successfully

in May 2024, and July 2022.

What is at stake in all these cases is the need

to ensure that governments uphold the

commitments made, not only internationally

but also in national framework climate laws.

The Human Rights

Argument

The challenge brought by CLM to the Climate

Action Plan 2024, diﬀers in its reliance on

human rights. It builds upon the judgment of

VillageOctNov24.indb 55 03/10/2024 14:27

56 October-November 2024

The legislation makes clear that when

preparing and approving carbon budgets, the

Minister and government must ensure that the

budgets are consistent with international

obligations, pursuant to the UNFCCC, Paris

Agreement, and EU law. Rather than a prudent

and gradual course correction now to reduce

our emissions reduction targets and achieve

the ‘national climate objective’ we run the risk

of breaching the binding targets in the EU’s

Eﬀort Sharing Regulation.

If we continue to carry forward projected

emissions exceedances, we are eﬀectively

running out of rope.

The International Context

A global rise in climate litigation is borne of the

increasing urgency of a global climate crisis the

eﬀects of which are already to be found in

devastating wildﬁres destroying millions of

hectares from Canada to Australia: ﬂoods,

heatwaves, droughts, crop failures, and

extreme weather events. These have caused

fatalities in multiple countries, and incalculable

economic losses. We are overshooting

planetary boundaries.

Ireland faces growing climate risk both

direct (arising, according to the EPA, from

changes in wind speed and storms, impacts on

crops, water supply and quality, and river and

coastal ﬂooding), and indirect from impacts

globally. One signiﬁcant risk is the predicted

deceleration of the Atlantic meridional

overturning circulation (AMOC) in the period

2025-2050. A weakening of the AMOC will lead

to sea level rises and decreased Atlantic

temperatures. Ireland is also vulnerable to the

impact of climate change internationally.

A subset of the climate cases worldwide

asks that governments adhere to their

legislative obligations and are based on

national framework climate laws enacted to

strengthen domestic implementation of

international climate commitments. The case

brought by Community Law and Mediation

(CLM) and three individuals draws upon this

tradition, and on constitutional law and human

rights norms.

Justine Schönfeld-Quinn is an Environmental

Justice Lawyer with Community Law and

Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice

the European Court of Human Rights in

KlimaSeniorinnen, a case brought by a non-

proﬁt association of senior Swiss women, in

which that Court recognised the causal

connection between climate change and

human rights. The Court relied upon reports

published by the UN climate scientiﬁc body,

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC). The Sixth Assessment Report

cited by the European Court of Human Rights,

prepared with input from 234 scientists from

66 countries recognised that humanity faces

grave peril from the increasing concentration

of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

caused by human activities.

The European Court of Human Rights took

cognisance of the “rapidly closing window of

opportunity to secure a liveable...future for all”

that States’ positive obligations are “to adopt,

and to eﬀectively apply in practice, regulations

and measures capable of mitigating the

existing and potentially irreversible, future

eﬀects of climate change”. The threat posed by

climate change necessitates a “reduced

margin of appreciation” when it comes to

setting aims and objectives to combat climate

change.

Legal Standing

The KlimaSeniorinnen judgment is also

notable for upholding the legal standing of a

non-proﬁt association of senior Swiss women

“established under Swiss law to promote and

implement eﬀective climate protection” on

behalf of the association’s members. The

association was deemed to have standing to

raise Convention rights on behalf of its

members who are at greater risk of the eﬀects

of climate change by virtue of their seniority.

In bringing the Climate Action Plan 2024

climate case in Ireland, CLM, a non-proﬁt

organisation, represents and gives a voice to

people who are marginalised or on low

incomes, together with disadvantaged social

groups, who use the organisation’s services.

CLM also invokes the rights of future

generations of Irish citizens who will be the

most aﬀected by climate change. The concept

of intergenerational equity has featured in

climate litigation in other countries, most

notably in the Neubauer judgment of the

German Constitutional Court in 2021 where the

Karlsruhe-based court held “that one

generation must not be allowed to consume

large por tions of the CO2 budget while bearing

a relatively minor share of the reduction eﬀort

if this would involve leaving subsequent

generations with a drastic reduction burden

and expose their lives to comprehensive losses

of freedom”.

The Irish legal community will look to the

Climate Action Plan 2024 case for guidance as

to how the Courts are likely to address the

standing of NGOs in future.

Substantive Issues on

Implementation

In May, the EPA announced that Ireland would

“exceed both its national and EU climate

targets’ and that ‘the planned climate policies

and measures, if fully implemented…are

insuﬃcient to achieve the ambition” set in

Ireland’s climate framework law, the Climate

and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 as

amended.

The government is exceeding its carbon

budgets and planning to carry these

exceedances forward, the eﬀect of which is

cumulative and sets Ireland on an

unsustainable emissions trajectory.

The threat posed by climate change

necessitates an orderly, inclusive and just

transition for most aﬀected communities and

workers. Delayed implementation of Ireland’s

current carbon budgets will undermine

Ireland’s ability to deliver a Just Transition. As

the impacts of climate change accelerate, and

as the window to remain within 1.5°C narrows,

the policy response may become abrupt,

forceful and disorderly. Those less able to

weather economic shocks may face

disproportionate harm from the radical shifts

in government energy and economic policy

that will be required if this process is not

effectively managed. As argued by the

applicants in Neubauer, the faster we hurtle

towards the cliﬀ now, the harder the brakes will

have to be hit later, and by then it may be too

late.

The process of establishing economy-wide

carbon budgets at ﬁve-year intervals is legally

binding under the Climate Action and Low

Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021.

In failing to comply with Ireland’s climate

legislation and legally binding carbon

budgets, the Climate Action Plan 2024

violates the fundamental rights of

marginalised people, future generations,

and three individuals

Judge Richrd Humphreys

VillageOctNov24.indb 56 03/10/2024 14:27