Climate change: Greens' bill 'would cost NI £1bn a year'

Edwin Poots' draft climate change bill sets a target of achieving at least an 82% reduction in emissions by 2050

Edwin Poots has claimed that the 100% target for reducing emissions in the Green Party's climate change bill would cost "an additional £1bn a year".

There are currently two separate pieces of climate legislation making their way through Stormont.

On Friday, Ms Bailey said she believed attempts to reach a compromise would not be productive.

But the agriculture minister claimed her bill would damage the agri-food industry.

Ms Bailey proposes a target of net zero by 2045, but the minister aims to achieve at least an 82% reduction in emissions by 2050.

There have been discussions between Ms Bailey and the Mr Poots's officials to try to find common ground between their two bills.

In a letter seen by BBC News NI, she wrote to the minister offering to adapt her Climate Change Bill No 1.

Mr Poots told BBC's Good Morning Ulster that the different emissions targets in the bills, were the "fundamental problem".

"The United Kingdom signed up to 100% by 2050 at the Paris Agreement," he said.

'Headline grabbing'

"The Climate Change Committee was established to deliver that and their advice is that Northern Ireland should set a target of 82% at this moment in time," he added.

"Science may change to allow us to achieve more and I hope that it does," he said.

He said if NI can achieve 82% by 2050, that the cost would be around 1.5% of GDP each year, but "the cost if we went down Clare Bailey's route would add an additional £1bn a year".

However, he claimed that there had been "precious little compromise" offered by Ms Bailey or her team on the issue.

"This isn't about headline grabbing - it's about target-based science based politics," he said.

'Rushed legislation'

Mr Poots claimed that the Green Party's bill would be "unworkable" as it had been drafted in three weeks.

"There's an old saying in politics 'Fast legislation is bad legislation' and this was certainly rushed legislation," he said.

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"What Claire wants to do, and what her bill wants to do, is going to be hugely damaging to Northern Ireland's agrifood industry.

"We have a situation where the agrifood industry employs 113,000 people and 30% of manufacturing, and that bill would wipe out tens of thousands of jobs across Northern Ireland," he said.

'Enhanced bill'

Ms Bailey said that an "enhanced" bill would offer a way forward.

She said she and her co-sponsors hope these amendments to her Climate Change Bill No. 1 "will provide a satisfactory structure for a single climate bill to proceed through the assembly".

"We're looking at the carbon budgeting, we're looking at the public sector duty, we're looking at the non-regression clause," she said.

"We're looking at a few bits and pieces, and we're hoping that what we can all do is now agree that we're going to get legislation passed this mandate."

Clare Bailey said her proposal of amendments would offer a way forward

The current assembly is due to be dissolved next March, before an election in May.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK not to have climate change legislation.

"We need to be ambitious, because we have to be ambitious," Ms Bailey said.

"Northern Ireland has not played its part, it has not done its fair share to date.

"What we have seen is Scotland setting a net zero by 2045 target, we have England and Wales going for net zero, the Republic of Ireland going for net zero, and of course we have COP26 next week.

"Northern Ireland cannot be left behind, we are already seen as environmental laggards.

"We have not played our part and therefore, we need to step up."