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.
Chris Stark, the chief executive of the UK government’s official climate advisory body, said there was little hope of Northern Ireland getting on track to meet its legal obligations under the act if power sharing was not restored imminently. He added that despite Scotland’s objectively higher bar of a 2045 net zero target, Northern Ireland now has the “most ambitious targets” in the UK relative to its capacity to meet them and has made the least progress of all the four administrations to move towards achieving them.
“It’s hard, sadly, to point to many areas of progress [to date]. It is literally every corner of the economy that needs to respond to this [2050 net zero] target. And we will need literally every single bit of the government and of the executive in Northern Ireland to respond.
“Without that, there’s really very little hope of getting on track with any of this.”
His comments came as the US president, Joe Biden, concluded his visit to Northern Ireland and the Irish republic this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement. Biden’s trip was overshadowed by the continuing shutdown of the power-sharing institutions established through the 1998 peace accord, owing to a row over post-Brexit customs arrangements in the Irish Sea.
The CCC recently published a report detailing its proposals to government on how Northern Ireland could meet its incoming carbon budgets – the first deadline for which is 2027. The advisory report contains a suggested pathway to 2050 net zero that includes measures such as cutting livestock numbers by a third, alongside rapid afforestation, carbon capture and a range of renewable energy initiatives.
Northern Ireland’s farming sector, which accounts for 28% of its overall greenhouse gas emissions, is facing “very dramatic” changes, so there needs to be as much government engagement and supportive policy in place as possible, Stark said.
“What we’ve recommended in this report is a very dramatic shift in the way that agriculture happens in Northern Ireland.
“I hope it flushes out a more realistic appraisal of what needs to happen in Northern Ireland now, because I’m afraid I’m not of the view that these targets can just be presented as just high-ambition ‘stretch’ targets, and that it doesn’t matter if we don’t meet them – because they’re legal obligations. And I don’t want to see the law undermined in that way.
“So, if net zero [by 2050] is the goal, this is the path you’ve got to follow. And it has very deep implications for society, and particularly for agricultural production.”
During the final votes on the climate bill last year, Northern Ireland’s then agriculture minister attempted to exempt farmers from some of its requirements. Last month, the CCC’s chair, Lord Deben, criticised members of the devolved assembly at Stormont for having legislated emissions reduction targets that were more ambitious than the ones initially advised by the CCC.
Stark said many of the changes proposed for Northern Ireland to meet the climate targets would be overwhelmingly “positive for the consumer and for society as a whole”. However, he added: “This will only work if it has the support of farmers because they are ultimately the stewards of the land.”
The devolved Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) noted the limits of progressing this work in the absence of power-sharing government, saying that civil servants “will not have all the answers” needed.
A Daera spokesperson said: “Daera has welcomed the publication of the CCC report, which clearly sets out the size and scale of the challenge that we are facing across a number of sectors including agriculture, land use, transport and buildings.
“This detailed advice from the CCC will be considered by all departments to help inform the best pathway for Northern Ireland. Daera is conscious that the civil service will not have all the answers to the challenges presented in the CCC advice.
“As Northern Ireland progresses to net zero, Daera is therefore encouraging organisations across the public, private and third sectors to consider and debate the report and recommendations in readiness for participation in the consultation on a carbon budget and climate action plan in the coming months.”
