Some of Ireland’s top climate scientists and legal experts have written to the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and leader of the Green Party saying that they are seriously concerned that the sectoral emissions ceilings announced by Government last month are flawed.
The academics wrote an open letter in which they expressed their “serious concerns” that the Government’s approach to the sectoral emissions ceilings is “flawed both in law and in science”.
They also say that the Government’s strategy carries “grave risks” that will undermine the Climate Act.
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They say that the sectoral emissions ceilings do not go into enough detail and that is a huge problem not only because it means sectors don’t have a path on how to achieve their reduction deadline but also because those ceilings are needed to fulfil the next part of the act.
The letter also makes it clear that how sectoral emissions ceilings were defined by the Act is not what we got in July.
Barry McMullin, one of the signatories of the letter, told The Star that “it was clear from the time the Act was passed that the sectoral emissions ceilings really represented the key instrument for implementation”.
“We were waiting for the announcement of the sectoral emissions ceilings when we realised that it wasn’t actually doing what the act said needed to be done,” McMullin said.
“In order to get on your way, you actually need the full picture. It's not enough to say in 2030, the maximum emissions for that sector are going to be x without saying for all years in between.”
The letter says that holding off on setting a ceiling for the land use sector “must be considered unlawful” as it’s not in keeping with the spirit of the law and means the provision for sectoral emissions ceilings in the Act has not yet been fulfilled.
“There's always going to be something,” McMullin said speaking of the land use sector, “but that doesn't mean that you can't set a benchmark now, today, for the land use sector”.
The land use sector wasn’t included in the sectoral emissions ceilings because there is a review of the sector that is not due to be completed for 18 months.
McMullin said that you could still set a target and review in the second carbon budget cycle which would begin in 2026.
We only have a certain amount of emissions in total that can be emitted for each carbon budget.
“In a sense until all [sectors] are agreed, none are agreed,” McMullin said.
McMullin pointed to the extreme weather events that the world has seen this summer as evidence that climate change is happening right now and people are recognising that.
“Climate change is here, it’s now, and for the foreseeable future it’s going to get worse,” he said.
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