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FEATURE Climate Policy Committee Report Marks “New
Era” for Climate Policy
The Committee on Climate Action recently launched its landmark report that the committee’s chairperson says “marks a new era for climate policy in Ireland”.
ambitious report will “frame climate policy in Ireland for the next 15 years”.
The report recommends replacing our current self-designated target of 80 per cent emissions reductions by 2050 with a new target of net zero emissions by mid-century that is set in stone in new climate legislation.
The Task Force would be responsible for commissioning research to examine the regions and sectors of the economy most likely to experience serious disruption.
The Committee signed off on the report last month following late deliberations over carbon tax measures.
The Committee members recognised that specific measures will be required for the Midlands region due to its dependence on peat extraction that will be phased out for electricity generation by 2030.
The report follows months of scrutiny by committee members and builds on a wish list outlined by the Citizens’ Assembly on how the State can lead on climate action.
The Committee also agreed to call for the new legislation to include a 70 per cent target for renewables on the electricity grid by 2030, as well as five-year departmental carbon budgets from 2020 onwards.
In this light, the Committee recommend that the Government direct the Regional Enterprise Plan (REP) Committee in the region to devise a just transition strategy to “sustain the economic and social fabric of the region in a post peat extraction era”.
Ms Naughton said that the committee’s recommendations seeks to answer the Assembly’s policy asks and also answer calls from young citizens who are mobilising to ensure a brighter future.
The budgets would be determined by a new Climate Action Council (CAC) also recommended by the Committee that would supersede the existing Climate Change Advisory Council with enhanced powers, functions and resources.
The strategy would examine ways to fund a major project to rewet bogs and how best to deliver a major house retrofitting programme in the region.
The final recommendations, she said, “show we are listening to Irish citizens” and that the Government must take strong and immediate action for “transformational changes” across all sectors to address climate change.
The CAC would report to a new standing Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action that would have similar powers to the Committee of Public Accounts to hold public bodies to account on climate action.
Committee member Sean Sherlock TD thanked the advisors who worked on the report who he said “did a marvellous job in educating”
The report also calls for a more diversified, resilient, and sustainable agricultural model that is more in tune with nature.
members on the challenges that exist. He said that it is essential that the “radical proposals” in the report are
recommendations to ramp up offshore wind infrastructure and home retrofitting, to bring down agricultural emissions while supporting on-farm biodiversity, and to facilitate greater community involvement in the low carbon transition.
Speaking On April 16th, Hildegarde Naughton TD said that the 40-plus topline recommendations in the
The Government has said that it will feed the recommendations into its upcoming All-of-Government climate plan and the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). The NECP was criticised in a new report out this week from CAN Europe, one of Europe’s largest climate NGO coalitions.
Recommendations to embed climate into the educational curriculum and for new broadcast media guidelines for climate coverage were also accepted.
taken up by the Government and worked into specific actions. Otherwise, we “will fall further behind on reaching targets”, he said.
“There is a massive urgency around this agenda and that we work together on a non-partisan basis to make sure we follow through on the recommendations in this report,” Mr Sherlock added.
Other recommendations include calls for the Government to establish a just transition taskforce focused on workers in the Midlands and a new legal framework for tackling climate change.
Overall, the report is widely ambitious as the Committee recognises that the window of opportunity to reduce emissions and avoid severe climate impacts is rapidly closing.
New biting legislation
The Committee also voted to accept
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The report also recommends the establishment of a Just Transition Task Force to address the needs of regions and sectors most likely to be impacted by climate action.
Just Transition
Biodiversity and agriculture