Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Climate Commissioner Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 8 April 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

8 April 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Northern Ireland Climate Commissioner Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4919600

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The previous contribution would have been a good comedy act if the issue were not so serious: the future of the planet and life itself on it. Obviously, there is a need for a robust Climate Commissioner with teeth to act and enforce a change of policy and action, but I remain unconvinced that this legislation will actually achieve that. The legislation states that the commissioner will provide advice and recommendations to Departments here on how to manage the transition to a net zero economy. Providing advice and recommendations is all that they are allowed to do. The obvious question is this: will the Executive actually act on those recommendations? Other activists will be asking that as well. The CCC letter states:

"the priority should be to determine clearly the nature of the Commissioner's role, and then to ensure that the functions and powers provided for are suitable to deliver the role effectively. We recognise that the Act is limited as to what it says around the Commissioner's duties, so the draft Regulations may not be the best place for providing such detail."

That is not quite coming out of the traps fighting, to put it mildly. On the role of the commissioner, it also states that the commissioner, going back to my earlier point, will provide advice and recommendations to Departments on how to manage the transition to a net zero economy. As part of that, I emphasise the point that the commissioner engage with a range of stakeholders, whether it be the farming community, businesses or the community sector. The commissioner will have to engage across the board. It may look like innocuous stuff at first glance, but I believe that that will give cover to inaction, which will be presented as the farming community being opposed to this, that and the other, even though most farmers, despite protests from the big agri sector, need and want to see climate action. Given what we have heard from one Executive party, I am concerned that the Executive have the power to include a clause to allow the office to continue to function in the event of a vacancy or defect in the appointment or reappointment. So, if somebody leaves the commissioner role because they are prevented from acting by the DUP or anybody else, how do we know that the person who is fulfilling that role will be operating independently? I question whether the regulations will allow fairness to take hold. There are more questions than clarity in the legislation. I urge the First Minister and the Executive to move at speed to ensure that there is an independent environmental protection agency (EPA) and that the legislation comes through urgently. Despite the important legislation passed in 2022, it is clear that the Executive are moving at a snail's pace whilst the planet heats up. We have had the hottest years on record over the past 10 years or so. That is the evidence that people should be referring to and looking at. We are seeing extreme weather patterns in summer and winter. Climate change will lead to devastation across the world, including here, and particularly for poorer people in the Global South. I care about those people, even if some in the House do not. Locally, we have continuous environmental destruction; habitat destruction; gorse fires; unsafe and unhealthy meat farming; and waste dumping, whether at Mobuoy or in our waters of Lough Neagh, Belfast lough and elsewhere. I will certainly not oppose the legislation, but my concern is the lack of action that will probably come from the commissioner's role being established. I will be happy to be proven wrong on that point.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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