High Court grants leave to proceed with landmark court case challenging inadequate Government action on climate change

Dublin-based community law centre Community Law & Mediation (CLM), alongside three co-plaintiffs, were granted leave to proceed with a landmark court case challenging inadequate Government action on human-driven climate change this Monday.

A High Court judge has allowed for the plaintiffs to seek a legal declaration that the 2024 update on the Climate Action Plan fails to meet Ireland’s legal obligations regarding climate action.

The plan sets out the roadmap for meeting Ireland’s legally binding carbon budget, promising to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.

According to CLM, though, the successive plans have fallen short of implementation, with this year’s failing to ensure compliance with the carbon budgets. They add that the plan was prepared, submitted and approved in breach of the 2015 Act.

The case, which is listed again for October 7, cites the Constitution of Ireland 1937, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights as being violated by the 2024 plan.

Additionally, they argue that the plan violates the fundamental rights of the three individual co-plaintiffs, namely Saoi O’Connor, a youth climate activist, Philip Kearney, a retired psychotherapist and climate activist, and a 20 months old, represented by their mother and next friend.

Rose Wall, Chief Executive of CLM, comments: "Low income and marginalised groups, the groups CLM has represented since its establishment in Coolock almost 50 years ago, stand to be disproportionately impacted by climate change but have least opportunity to protect or vindicate their rights."

This court case follows the landmark ruling from the European Court of Human Rights in the "Swiss grannies" case earlier this year, where four women asked the European Court of Human Rights to declare that insufficient climate action by the Swiss authorities is violating their human rights.

Speaking of the importance of court cases in climate justice, Wall tells Hot Press: “Around the world, people are increasingly turning to courts, holding governments and the private sector accountable and making litigation a key mechanism for securing climate action and promoting climate justice. This reflects both the scale of the problem and the growing frustration among communities that governments and companies aren't living up to their obligations on climate change.

“It’s effective too,” she adds. “the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) itself recognised the role of litigation in affecting ‘the outcome and ambition of climate governance.’ And closer to home, a report by Alex White SC, former Irish Minister, concluded that the majority of climate cases taken against governments in Europe have led to outcomes resulting in greater climate regulation.”