Legal Topic:
Climate change
Geographic relevance:
Ireland
Language:
English
Data type:
Legal citations
About this resource:
In 2017, an advocacy group brought a case against the Irish government, arguing that the government’s National Mitigation Plan was unlawful and should be quashed, in part, because it violated Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.
In July 2020, the Supreme Court issued a ruling quashing the Plan. The Irish Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 required the State to put forth at regular intervals a national low-carbon transition and mitigation plan in line with its national transition objective for 2050 (i.e. cutting GHG emissions by 80% of 1990 levels). The Court held that the National Mitigation Plan failed to make clear how Ireland would achieve its 2050 goals under the Act and was unlawful as a result. The Court noted that a lawful plan must be ‘sufficiently specific as to policy for the whole period to 2050.’
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