Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 14 October 2020
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
General Scheme of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion
Mr. Brian Carroll:
I am very happy to get her a note along the lines we discussed.
With regard to climate scientists having one vote, there are no provisions in the Bill at present to have differential voting arrangements depending on what qualification a member has. On public participation not being reflected in the Bill, I highlighted earlier the provisions on public participation but they need to be understood alongside wider policy in the area with regard to climate dialogue and the just transition.
Coming to Senator Higgins and the question of our EU obligations, the legal advice I have is that we would not double legislate for the current legally binding target, which is a 30% reduction in non-ETS emissions, and have it in national and EU law. More generally, in terms of the need for interim targets, to go back to the comments made by Deputy Bruton and my earlier response to those, the carbon budgets will lock in these once they are in place.
In terms of how various-----