Debate contribution: Green Growth: Removal of Barriers

Debate contribution by Mr Patsy McGlone on 17 September 2024.

MLA

Mr Patsy McGlone

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

17 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Green Growth: Removal of Barriers

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4537356

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the motion and the amendment and their focus on fair and just growth in the green economy. I also welcome the work by the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to bring forward a green growth strategy; indeed, I look forward to seeing more meat on the bones of that strategy. I listened carefully to the proposer of the motion's emphasis on the planning process. Yes, of course, all of us who have been involved in planning applications have seen delays after delays. That can be due to consultation with the NIEA, consultation with DFI Roads or consultation with NI Water, and it can be due to a lack of proper process by agents. All of those can contribute. That is the actual planning process. The green growth strategy goes further than that, insofar as it may well be required —.

OK.

I understand that. That is one element of it. I was about to make the point that, with any green growth strategy, there may need to be changes in actual policy. Before the Department can go ahead and say, "We look at process", which should be done at all stages, when the green growth strategy eventually emerges in whatever shape or form, there may well be, to my mind anyway, projects that do not nicely or neatly fit into any policy niche, and, in order to accommodate the development of that strategy, the Department may have to do that itself. The Executive's draft Programme for Government has already claimed the proposed strategy as its own, so hopefully the Minister will be pushing at an open door. Decarbonising our economy and creating sustainable green jobs is a vital part of achieving the ambitious target of net zero. The SDLP is proud of its role in helping to secure the Climate Change Act 2022 that set those targets, but the elements required for fair and just transition are absent from today's motion. We tabled an amendment that, had it been selected, would have put those elements into the debate. The Minister has said that he hopes to have the just transition commission in place next year. He has also stated that he has made the case to the British Government that there should be a separate and additional capital fund for Northern Ireland for a just transition fund for agriculture. Again, that just transition fund and the projects that it will need to help — hopefully they are innovative and creative as agriculture adapts to the changing environment — will require accommodation at least within policies developed by the Department. Indeed, local development plans may have to accommodate certain projects and capacity of zoning lands to accommodate that too. The Executive's draft Programme for Government talks of supporting the cost of a just transition but provides no detail on how they plan to do that. The details will be vital. The detail on planning policy, planning processes and local development plans — all of it — will be vital. Both those provisions are key elements of a green growth strategy. The longer they take to be established, the further behind we fall on the schedule to achieve net zero. It is important that all the elements are in place before a fundamental reform of the planning system, because any reform must consider the need for the just transition and how it will impact on councils' policies and practices and the policies that the Department for Infrastructure hands down on accommodating the just transition in policies and practices. There is no doubt that planning reform is needed. Our report and recommendations on the implementation of the Planning Act 2011 was waiting on the Infrastructure Minister's desk when he took office, with, I am sure, plenty of other things. Despite an 11% decrease in planning applications compared with the previous year, in 2023-24 there was a 10% decrease in the number of decisions made or issued. The average time for a decision on local applications was 20·8 weeks, and major applications took an average of 46·5 weeks — both well over the target times — so reform of how things are done is definitely needed. It is also worth noting that an important part of the previous draft green growth strategy was to publish our first climate action plan by the end of December 2023. We are now approaching a year on from that date, and there is still no sign of the climate action plan. I welcome the Minister's efforts to bring forward a green growth strategy, and I look forward to those efforts bearing fruit in the just transition elements required by the Climate Change Act, because it is not enough simply to publish the growth strategy, nor to call it "green". A fair and just growth strategy needs careful governance and regulation. We argue that it requires the oversight of an independent environmental protection agency. It requires agreement by the Executive, and, as we have seen with the Lough Neagh action plan, that can take time and might not survive engagement with the Executive in the manner intended or required. That may be why the Minister's party colleagues are calling on his Executive colleagues to work with him to deliver green growth and maximise renewable energy.

The SDLP wishes the Minister well in that regard.

889 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:11 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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