Climate remarks ‘show need for legal action’
The chief executive of the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) has described a statement from the Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy as representing “a colossal missed opportunity”.
Minister Darragh O’Brien told the Irish Times that Ireland would reduce greenhouse emissions by just half of its 51% target by 2030.
CEJ’s Aoife Kelly-Desmond said that successive climate-action plans had failed to set out a sufficiently clear roadmap for effective action in line with Ireland’s legal obligations.
“The financial consequences of this failure – a potential €28 billion in fines – will be significant but the human cost is already being felt,” she stated, citing Met Éireann data showing that climate change directly contributed to several extreme weather events last year.
High Court challenge
The centre, as part of the independent law centre Community Law & Mediation, is preparing a challenge to the Government’s Climate Action Plan 2024, arguing that its lack of a clear roadmap for meeting Ireland’s legal obligations breaches the Climate and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended).
The case will be heard before the High Court, starting on 27 January.
The CEJ is also backing a separate challenge to the 2023 climate plan.
“It is clear from the minister’s admission today that legal action is necessary to ensuring that Ireland's obligations on climate change are taken seriously,” said Kelly-Desmond.
The centre is to host a webinar on Tuesday 20 January on 'Climate justice before the courts: Ireland, Switzerland and the Pacific Islands'.
Among the speakers are:
- Isabelle Jorg, a plaintiff in the Klimaseniorinnen case successfully taken against the Swiss government before the European Court of Human Rights in 2024, and
- Vishal Prasad (director, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change), whose campaigning led to the International Court of Justice’s landmark advisory opinion on the obligations of states in relation to climate change last year.