Irish Supreme Court upholds climate obligations and clarifies obligations of planning authorities. The Supreme Court concluded that climate objectives, while real, effective and enforceable, cannot be converted into a simple formula, but must be considered in the wider context of the architecture of the planning system in which climate change and climate mitigation are already ‘intrinsically woven’.
The significance of the appeal cannot be overstated. It was the first opportunity for the Supreme Court to consider the implications of s. 15(1) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (“the 2015 Act”) following the High Court Judgment just over a year earlier that described the Act as one that “imposes sweeping obligations across the public sector from the Government down”.
Succinctly, the wide-ranging significance of the High Court judgment lay in its conclusion that the Planning Commission was obliged by s. 15(1) of the 2015 Act to favour development which is more likely to enable Ireland to meet its climate change objectives unless it was impracticable to do so, and that this conclusion was reinforced by the European Convention of Human Rights Act 2003. Therefore, by extension, as the 2015 Act applies to pretty much any public body – the High Court judgment was far broader in consequence that clarifying the obligations of the Planning Commission in considering application for renewable energy projects, it encompassed other decision making bodies central to, for example, the data centre sector in Ireland such as CRU, Eirgrid, ESBn GNI. It went beyond the planning process. Do these entities also now have to, perform their functions in a manner consistent with certain climate plans and objectives, like mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change in the State, in so far as it was practicable to do so? Is there a strong presumption in favour of the grant of permission in respect of a climate friendly project? All eyes were on the outcome of the seven Judge Supreme Court.
