Update on Climate Change and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015

We previously reported on the initiation of this Bill in the Dáil and its passage by that House.

The Seanad has now passed the Bill, with some minor amendments. These have the effect of involving both Houses of the Oireachtas in the various statutory procedures, rather than the Dáil exclusively (as provided for in the Bill passed by the Lower House).

Those amendments now fall to be considered by the Dáil (where they are expected to pass, having the support of the Government), and, once passed, the Bill will be sent for the President's signature, the final stage in the legislative process.

In anticipation of its enactment, some implementation of the Bill has begun:

1. The eleven members of the Climate Change Advisory Council have been named. John Fitzgerald, formerly of the ESRI, is proposed to be its chairman, and the remaining persons named are:

    • Laura Burke, Director General, Environmental Protection Agency (ex officio)
       
    • William Walsh, Acting CEO, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (ex officio)
       
    • Prof Gerry Boyle, Director, Teagasc (ex officio)
       
    • Alan Barrett, Director, Economic and Social Research Institute (ex officio)
       
    • Prof Ottmar Edenhoffer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Chair of Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change) and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
       
    • Prof Frank Convery, Chief Economist, Environmental Defense Fund (the New York headquarter environmental non-profit)
       
    • Prof J Peter Clinch, UCD Earth Institute, Jean Monnet Professor of Economic Integration
       
    • Prof, Anna Davies, TCD, Department of Geography
       
    • Prof Alan Matthews, TCD, Department of Economics, Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy
       
    • Joseph Curtin, Senior Research Fellow with responsibility for climate change policy at the Irish Institute of International and European Affairs

2. The headline items for the National Mitigation Plan have been the subject of public consultation  (the responses are collated here)

3. Scoping for Strategic Environmental Assessment of the National Mitigation Plan is ongoing.

For further information please contact Alison Fanagan at afanagan@algoodbody.com.

Date published: 22 December 2015