Ireland's Carbon Budget Programme And EU Law

Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council proposed a first carbon budget programme to the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, pursuant to recent amendments to the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (the "Act"). The Act requires the State to pursue and achieve by no later than the end of 2050 transition to a climate neutral economy (which means a sustainable economy and society where GHG emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of GHGs). We look at some interesting aspects of how this latest development interacts with EU law.

The new legislative framework (which you can read more about in our briefing here) requires the development of five year carbon budgets which fix the total amount of emissions that can be emitted in the State during the five year budget period. At any one time, three sequential budgets have to be in place (although the third can be in draft form) and the three together are known as the carbon budget