Ireland's Climate Mitigation Plan Upheld In Landmark Challenge

Friends of the Irish Environment v The Government of Ireland

The High Court has ruled in favour of the Irish government following a challenge taken by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) over the former's alleged failure to tackle climate change.¹ Mr Justice Michael MacGrath, delivering the judgment on 21 September 2019, refused to quash Ireland's National Mitigation Plan and remit it to the government for redrafting, as demanded. The case forms an important part of a growing body of recent litigation in which courts throughout the world have had to grapple with the science of climate change.² It is the first of this kind in Ireland and its progress has attracted an overwhelming amount of public interest at a time when there is ever-greater evidence of the need to tackle climate change. The case itself was heard in January 2019 and an account of the proceedings can be found in a previous Insights by the same authors.³