The revised Climate Action Bill lacks the ambition needed to address wider issues of inequality in terms of climate justice according to Community Law & Mediation.

The community law centre, which recently launched a new Centre for Environmental Justice, welcomes the inclusion of definitions of both climate justice and just transition in the revised bill, but says these need to support the people who are most affected by climate change and are the least equipped to adapt to its effects.

Chief executive Rose Wall said: “The climate crisis is not just an environmental one – it is a health crisis, a housing crisis, a jobs crisis, a debt crisis and ultimately a human crisis – a crisis that is not being and will not be borne equally by all.

Disproportionately affected 

“In our community law centres we are already working with communities who are disproportionately affected by issues linked to climate change and the environment, including flooding, health concerns related to poor air quality, and poor housing conditions.”

Wall said that the approach taken by the Scottish parliament when defining the “climate justice principle” in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 is to be recommended but is not reflected in the revised Irish bill.