Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It must be made clear that this Bill, as well as the current Act of 2000 recognises the pivotal importance of meeting the climate challenge and the central role that planning can play in these efforts. My Department has a broad remit over the built environment, planning, the marine environment and national biodiversity policy, as well as Met Éireann’s role in climate science and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Many of our actions are high-impact and play an important role in the delivery and implementation of the climate action plan. Examples of actions delivered by my Department under the climate action plan 2023 include the establishment of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, and the retrofit of approximately 2,400 local authority homes.

From a national planning policy perspective, the national planning framework, NPF, provides a means to implement and integrate climate change objectives at national, regional and local levels and to support the transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient society. The 2018 NPF states clearly that "in addition to legally binding targets agreed at EU level, it is a national objective for Ireland to transition to be a competitive low carbon, economy by the year 2050". The NPF strategy is at an early stage in its implementation.

The associated regional spatial and economic strategies were adopted in 2019 and 2020, which each contain a number of ambitious policy objectives to ensure emissions can be reduced and targets met, and the majority of city and county development plans have now been updated to be consistent with the NPF. A key feature of this new Bill is greater alignment of national policy, including those relating to climate objectives, with regional and local implementation.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill was enacted in 2021 with a commitment to a binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% and increase the share of electricity generated from renewable sources by up to 80% over the decade 2021 to 2030, and to achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The Climate Action Plan 2023 was published on 21 December 2022 with the supplementary annex of actions published in March 2023. The plan implements the carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings, identifying actions aiming to ensure that Ireland achieves a reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and also to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.

This Bill recognises the importance of the NPF in establishing a broad national framework for strategic planning and sustainable development of urban and rural areas to secure balanced regional development and co-ordination of plans at regional and local level. The current revision of the NPF identifies climate action as one of the key drivers for consideration as part of the revision process, having regard to policy and legislative changes since 2018 and, therefore, climate objectives will be a key consideration cascading consistently throughout the planning hierarchy.

While the Bill, as initiated, makes reference to the climate action plan and other environmental considerations, I see the merit in examining the intent of these proposed amendments. This is to ensure that the language in the Bill fully reflects my Department’s commitment to the Government’s climate objectives while maintaining the capacity of the planning system to effectively and appropriately evaluate a wide range of legitimate considerations, which need to be balanced in pursuance of its function of facilitating proper planning and sustainable development.

With this in mind, I commit to liaising with both the Office of the Attorney General and my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, and will revert on Report Stage should any changes required to the current drafting of the Bill be identified regarding the amendments referred. In that sense, I must reject these amendments but, again, I am giving that commitment to examine the amendments and see how we can strengthen this Bill with regard to the climate Act.