The new climate bill is continuing its Oireachtas journey this week, and is scheduled to be discussed at its third stage tomorrow (Thursday, June 3).

On May 12, the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 was voted from second stage to committee stage.

In this select committee stage, the bill will be “examined section by section and amendments may be made”.

It is an opportunity for government and opposition members to make changes to the text. Once each section of the bill has been agreed to, it is set down for report stage.

There is no limit to the number of times a member can speak on an amendment – so this stage “can be lengthy”.

The vote at second stage was the bill’s first vote in the Dáil, passing with 117 votes (Fianna Fáil; Fine Gael; Green Party; Sinn Féin; Social Democrats; Labour Party; Solidarity-People Before Profit; and three TDs in the Regional Group) versus 12 votes.

The 12 TDs who voted against the progression of this bill are: Seán Canney; Joan Collins; Michael Collins; Michael Fitzmaurice; Danny Healy-Rae; Michael Healy-Rae; Mattie McGrath; Verona Murphy; Denis Naughten; Carol Nolan; Richard O’Donoghue; Peadar Tóibín.

What is the climate bill?

The climate bill will establish a legally-binding framework for meeting climate targets.

In March, the government approved the final text of legislation to set Ireland “on the path to net zero emissions no later than 2050” and to reduce emissions by 51% by the end of this decade.

While there are “no legal obligations imposed on individual citizens, businesses or farmers” through the new bill, the meeting of agricultural targets is “very much around actions being done on every single one of those farms”.

According to the new bill, the Climate Change Advisory Council will take into account “relevant scientific advice, including with regard to the distinct characteristics of biogenic methane” and “international best practice on the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removal”.

The bill provides that the first two five-year carbon budgets proposed by the Climate Change Advisory Council should equate to a total reduction of 51% over the period to 2030, relative to a baseline of 2018.

The government must adopt carbon budgets that are consistent with the Paris Agreement and other international obligations. All forms of greenhouse gas emissions, including biogenic methane, will be included in the carbon budgets. However, it is up to government to decide on the trajectories for different sectors.

The government will determine, following consultation, how to apply the carbon budgets across the relevant sectors, and what each sector will contribute in a given five-year period.

Climate Action Plans

Actions for each sector will be detailed in the ‘Climate Action Plan’, which must be updated annually. 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.

Local authorities must prepare individual Climate Action Plans which will include both mitigation and adaptation measures and will be updated every five years.

The preparation of the 2021 Climate Action Plan involves a public consultation, which closed on May 18.

Following this, it is expected that the plan will be published during the summer.

‘Future for Irish agriculture’

As covered extensively by Agriland, the response to the ambitions of the climate bill have been both mixed and powerful.

Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan told the Dáil that this bill “is the future for Irish agriculture”, and that it will “mean the protection of the Irish family farm”.

“This is the chance for us to pay a whole generation of young new farmers to come in to manage the land and protect nature. They will be the front-line heroes of this transformation with this climate action plan.”

However, the Rural Independent Group of TDs is completely opposed to what it calls a “flawed” bill, saying that it will cause “immeasurable damage to Irish agriculture, cause food security issues, lead to thousands of direct and indirect job losses across rural Ireland and create enormous and costly volumes of red tape”.

Deputy Mattie McGrath said that the group will combat the bill’s proposals “at every turn – we will stand up for rural communities and family farms; and we will not be swayed by the government spin and empty platitudes”.

More to follow on this in the coming days…