Climate-plan challenge goes to Supreme Court
Campaign group Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has been granted leave to bring its challenge to the Government’s Climate Action Plan 2023 to the Supreme Court.
The climate plan, published annually, sets out how Ireland plans to meet Ireland’s legally binding carbon-emissions targets.
FIE argues that the Government’s plan has failed to specify how it would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in line with legally binding targets under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended).
Public importance
The Court of Appeal held that the onus of proof required to demonstrate that the Government acted in breach of the 2015 act had not been discharged.
The Supreme Court, however, has granted permission to FIE to appeal the judgment on the grounds that the issues raised are of public importance.
FIE is being represented by Community Law and Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice.
In its application for leave to appeal, the organisation has sought clarity on the extent to which the Government must quantify, justify, or explain the emissions-reduction measures set out in the 2023 plan.
‘Clear roadmap’
FIE director Tony Lowes said that climate-action plans had to set out “a sufficiently clear roadmap” for effective climate action, while also serving as “a meaningful mechanism for monitoring and ensuring accountability on Government climate action”.
Community Law and Mediation chief executive Aoife Kelly-Desmond cited recent projections from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showing that Ireland was “significantly off track” for meeting its national and EU climate targets.
“The ability of the public to access justice and hold Government to account for inadequate climate action is more crucial now than ever,” she added.
Figures from the EPA released yesterday (7 July) showed that Ireland’s greenhouse-gas emissions fell by 2& last year.
It warned, however, that the figures were well short of national and EU targets.