Crisis leaves no room for prevarication in cross-party action on climate
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe. While Minister Donohoe is not responsible for climate targets being kept within emissions ceilings, the work of the Climate Division has the potential to provide valuable insights into where emissions ceilings have been or are likely to be breached.
The cross-party Committee on Environment and Climate Action has sought legal advice after Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe twice turned down its invitations, saying he was under no obligation to accept.
The committee has held public sessions with senior ministers including Simon Coveney, Eamon Ryan, and Charlie McConalogue to discuss their roles in relation to the Climate Action Plan.
In response to the invitation, Mr Donohoe replied that the issues the committee were discussing were of more relevance to ministers responsible for sectors with ‘sectoral emission ceilings’, that govern how much greenhouse gas emissions different sectors of society and the economy can emit.
Mr Donohoe suggested that it did not apply to him. The Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers said that the minister had a particular responsibility in relation to the public sector, and so was answerable for sectoral emissions ceilings.
The role of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is to serve the public interest by supporting the delivery of well-managed, well targeted and sustainable public spending through modernised, effective, and accountable public services.
So, what is the role of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to climate?
In June 2022 Deputy Ged Nash asked the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath the details for a new climate division in his department, in terms of its staffing structure, overall responsibilities, and its function in relation to implementation and enforcement of sectoral carbon budgets and ceilings across Government.
In his response, Minister McGrath said in recognition of the scale and urgency of the challenge of meeting Ireland’s climate and action targets, a new Climate Action Division had been established within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
"The new Climate Action Division aims to maximise the contribution which the department can make in this area. The division will bring together key expenditure areas with a strong climate dimension, including adaptation, mitigation and climate finance. A core responsibility will be to ensure that climate impacts are fully considered in the development of policies and actions for which the department is responsible."
The Minister outlined the key functions of the new division, including climate policy coordination, performance budgeting, and wellbeing; climate policy research and analysis; as well as oversight of sectoral spending in the departments of transport, agriculture, environment, climate, communications, and the Office of Public Works (OPW), amongst others.
"Regarding the sectoral climate ceilings, each relevant Government minister will be responsible for achieving the legally binding targets for their own sector, with each minister accounting for their performance towards sectoral targets and actions before the Oireachtas Committee annually.
"Within the overall expenditure framework set by my department, it will be the responsibility of each minister to ensure that their department’s priorities and spending allocations are aligned with the emissions ceilings in their sectors."
Further clarity of the role of the Department of Expenditure and Reform’s climate division became evident earlier this month when Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked Minister Donohoe to outline the targets for 2023 for the climate division of this department.
In response, the Minister explained that the climate division has responsibility for oversight of capital investment policies, and advises the minister and Government on the public expenditure implications of climate action.
He explained the key targets of the climate division in 2023 include robust monitoring of the expenditure implications of both national and international climate policies to understand the potential costs associated with achieving climate targets and to ensure the Department’s policies and tools take sufficient account of climate considerations.
"This is a multi-faceted programme of work that builds on the progress made in previous years to help shape policymaking that is financially sustainable and represents the best use of available resources,
"The work is supported by the climate research unit within the division, whose objective is to undertake analysis on the wider economic implications of climate policies and the potential compliance costs associated with climate targets.’
The minister added the climate research unit works in collaboration with the Department of Finance and the Economic and Social Research Institute to estimate the macroeconomic and fiscal impacts of the State’s climate action measures and examine the distributional impacts of climate policy on the Irish economy and the costs that individual households and businesses are likely to face as a result of the climate transition.
The Climate Division also has responsibility for the implementation of performance reporting and driving progress in the development and application of budgeting tools such as well-being, green and equality budgeting. These are designed to bring a greater level of transparency and accountability to how public money is being spent, and strengthen the link between expenditure allocations and the delivery of public service outputs and outcomes.’ It is clear from these statements that the Climate Division within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform does not have responsibility for meeting the emissions ceilings within individual sectors — responsibility lies with the Minister in the relevant Department.
While Minister Donohoe is not responsible for climate targets being kept within emissions ceilings, the work of the Climate Division has the potential to provide valuable insights into the exploration of transgressions where emissions ceilings have been or are likely to be breached. Similarly, the wider economic implications of climate policies must also be of interest to the Oireachtas Committee.
The key role of the Climate Division in the implementation of performance reporting and driving progress in the development and application of wellbeing, green, and equality budgeting tools is an essential part of the understanding of the ability of individual Departments to meet sectoral ceilings for climate emissions.
New data from Eurostat recently report Ireland to have had the largest rise in greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in Q4 of 2022 rose in tandem with GDP, which was almost twice as large as the second biggest year-on-year increase.
Following Ireland was Latvia, which saw greenhouse gas emissions rise by 6.8%, with Malta in third place, rising by 6.4%. Denmark was the fourth country to report an increase, with its rate of emissions growing marginally at just under 2%.
The remaining 23 countries all saw a fall in greenhouse gas emissions, with Slovenia seeing the most dramatic decrease at almost 16%.
It appears that the Climate Division in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is in a key position to provide insights into how this ongoing challenge is being addressed and how we are going to get these figures in line with the rest of Europe.
At a time of climate emergency, why is the Minister not stepping forward enthusiastically and voluntarily to do exactly that?
Time for all of us to stop prevaricating, procrastinating and dodging the bullet — and do whatever we can, wherever we can to meet our climate targets and challenge the climate breakdown we are hurtling towards.
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