Friends of the Irish Environment v. Government of Ireland

In 2020, Friends of the Irish Environment successfully challenged the government's National Mitigation Plan, with the Supreme Court determining that the Plan fell short of the specificity that the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended) requires, because a reasonable reader of the Plan would not understand how Ireland will achieve its binding 2050 emission reduction targets. Since 2020, the government has implemented a series of Climate Action Plans which lay out the government's plans for how it will meet its legally binding emission reduction requirements, in line with the 2020 ruling. Friends of the Irish Environment is challenging the 2023 Climate Action Plan and its corresponding Annex of Actions, on the grounds that the Plan does not comply with the requirements of sections 4(2)(a), 4(2)(b) and 4(3) of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended). Friends of the Irish Environment has laid out the following submissions: 1. The State has not “ensured” that the Plan is “consistent” with the Carbon Budget Programme contrary to the requirements of section 4(2)(a) of the 2015 Act. 2. The Plan does not contain a roadmap of actions that include the sector specific actions “that are required to comply with the carbon budget and sectoral emissions ceiling for the period to which the plan relates” (section 4(2)(b)(i) of the 2015 Act) or “that are required to address any failure or projected failure, to comply with the carbon budget and sectoral emissions ceiling for the period to which the plan relates” ((section 4(2)(b)(ii) of the 2015 Act). 3. The Plan's Annex of Actions does not specify measures that will “in the Minister’s opinion, will be required for the first budget period in a carbon budget programme” for the purposes of section 4(3)(a) of the 2015 Act or the policies identified in 4(3)(b) of the 2015 Act. The focus of the case is on ensuring that the Climate Action Plan 2023 and its Annex of Actions is consistent with Ireland’s obligations under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (as amended); that it includes quantification of the emissions reductions expected from the Plan and adopts any further measures necessary to comply with the 2021-2025 carbon budget. On Feb 7, 2025, the High Court determined that the Applicant had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the Plan was inconsistent with the carbon budget. Although reports published by the EPA and CCAC highlighted the inadequacy of the Climate Actions Plan 2023, the High Court considered that expert evidence was also required. On March 19, 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed this challenge. The Court held that (i) S15 of the Climate Act granted the Government broad discretion in setting out mitigation pathways; and (ii) the plaintiffs had not provided sufficient expert evidence that the plans outlined in the Climate Action Plans were insufficient. While acknowledging that the climate crisis is “probably the single most important issue facing our society”, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court ruling that the onus of proof required to demonstrate that the Government had acted in breach of the 2015 Act when adopting Climate Action Plan 2023 had not been discharged.