Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 21:

In page 44, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:

“Amendment of section 2 of Principal Act

7. The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 2:“2A. Planning authorities, the Office of the Planning Regulator, the Government, and other public authorities in the exercise of their functions under this Act, shall ensure consistency with the National Transition Objective established in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.”.”.

Amendment No. 21 requires that planning decisions and plans such as development plans, as well as any other decisions taken under the Act, are consistent with the national transition objective. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 establishes the national objective of transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, environmentally sustainable economy by 2050. The Act requires that public authorities have regard to this objective. Unfortunately, "have regard to" has been found in practice to mean very little. It is a test which is met by simply discussing climate issues in a vague manner. Therefore, I am proposing that the test be one which actually has an impact on the decisions made in the planning system.

The concept of requiring consistency with other plans runs throughout the planning system. For example, city and county development plans are required to be consistent with the regional, spatial and economic strategies. Given that climate change is the greatest challenge we face as a species, I propose that we require our planning decisions to be consistent with our national objective of transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, environmentally sustainable economy by 2050.