The climate bill has been passed today (Friday, July 16) by the Seanad and will next move to President Michael D. Higgins to be signed into law.
The controversial Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021 was outlined as a key commitment in the Programme for Government.
The bill amends the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 to “strengthen the framework for governance of climate action by the state in order to realise our national, EU and international climate goals and obligations”.
The government approved the final text of the legislation back in March 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.
An ‘historic day’
Speaking in the Seanad this afternoon as the bill was passed, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan thanked all members of the Oireachtas for their engagement over the last number of months, saying that the bill must be implemented “collaboratively” going forward.
Green Party senator Róisín Garvey told the Seanad that today is an “historic day”, and a “win for everybody”.
Her party colleague senator Pauline O’Reilly described the bill as one of the “most ambitious across the globe”.
The Environmental Pillar – a national coalition of 32 environmental groups such as An Taisce, the Irish Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Earth – has responded to the news of the bill passing, saying in a statement on social media that it now looks forward “to weighing in on the next critical steps: the upcoming Climate Action Plan and our first climate budget”.
“We also need to reassess previous policies to make sure they now align with the criteria set out in the bill and subsequent targets,” the statement reads.
“There has never been a more pressing time to adopt a sweeping and transformative step-change to address our climate and biodiversity crisis.”
‘Last minute’ amendments
In the past week, there has been a lot of unrest over the “last minute” amendments introduced by the minister to the bill in the Seanad on Friday, July 9.
In summary, the controversial amendments relate to giving the environment minister “the ability, through regulation, to designate how carbon budgets are accounted for and how the removals and the emissions reductions on the sinks are accounted for through this process”, according to Minister Ryan.
In recent days, the minister also submitted a smaller technical amendment to the above, relating to compliance with the Paris Agreement.
In the Dáil this week where TDs voted on the amendments, there were 80 votes in favour, and 60 votes against.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore told the Dáil that “after spending weeks and months, hundreds of hours of work, listening to advice, listening to the experts and trying to work as collaboratively as possible, to see these amendments come in at the last minute with no real notice was incredibly disappointing”.
“It is a very important bill and we all wanted to work with the minister to make it stronger and to future-proof it to make it a bill for future generations and governments. Unfortunately, these amendments have undermined that completely,” she added.
However, Labour TD Duncan Smith said that “this is a bill to which we will add and to which I hope the state will add to with strong carbon budgets and a Climate Action Plan”.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill pointed out the omission of a separate budget for biogenic methane. “That is essential but, unfortunately, it is not in this bill,” the deputy said.
The minister had been aiming for the bill to be passed before the Dáil’s summer recess (which began yesterday, Thursday, July 15) and to be enacted in the autumn.
A Climate Action Plan as part of the bill is yet to come in the near future.