Lack of NI government puts net zero targets at risk, UK climate adviser warns

Solar panels at the Dunore water treatment works in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The country has a 2050 goal for achieving net zero under its climate act. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

The prolonged lack of devolved government in Northern Ireland threatens to seriously hamper the country’s ability to hit the ambitious emissions reduction targets enshrined by law in its climate act, the chief executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said.

There has been no power-sharing government in place to advance work on meeting these commitments since Northern Ireland’s Climate Change Act, which includes a 2050 net zero target, was passed last spring.