Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 will support Ireland’s transition to Net Zero and achieve a climate neutral economy by no later than 2050. It will establish a legally binding framework with clear targets and commitments set in law, and ensure the necessary structures and processes are embedded on a statutory basis to ensure we achieve our national, EU and international climate goals and obligations in the near and long term.

The Bill includes the following key elements:

• Places on a statutory basis a 'national climate objective', which commits to pursue and achieve no later than 2050, the transition to a climate resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmentally-sustainable and climate-neutral economy
• Embeds the process of carbon budgeting into law, Government are required to adopt a series of economy-wide five-year carbon budgets, including sectoral targets for each relevant sector, on a rolling 15-year basis, starting in 2021
• Actions for each sector will be detailed in the Climate Action Plan, updated annually
• A National Long Term Climate Action Strategy will be prepared every five years
• Government Ministers will be responsible for achieving the legally-binding targets for their own sectoral area with each Minister accounting for their performance towards sectoral targets and actions before an Oireachtas Committee each year
• Strengthens the role of the Climate Change Advisory Council, tasking it with proposing carbon budgets to the Minister
• Provides that the first two five-year carbon budgets proposed by the Climate Change Advisory Council should equate to a total reduction of 51% emissions over the period to 2030, in line with the Programme for Government commitment
• Expands the Climate Change Advisory Council from eleven to fourteen members, and provides that future appointments to the Council provide for a greater range of relevant expertise and gender balanced
• Introduces a requirement for each local authority to prepare a Climate Action Plan, which will include both mitigation and adaptation measures and be updated every five years. Local authority Development Plans will also align with their Climate Action Plan
• Public Bodies will be obliged to perform their functions in a manner consistent with national climate plans and strategies, and furthering the achievement of the national climate objective

Government approval was given on 2 February 2021 to draft amendments to the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960 which would give statutory effect to ending the issuing of new licences for the exploration and extraction of gas. This commitment will be provided for in legislation at the Committee Stage of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021.