Climate change: Lack of executive 'hampering NI plan'

The UK's Climate Change Committee said planning for climate adaptation in NI is "in its infancy".

The lack of a Stormont executive is hampering progress on climate change adaptation in Northern Ireland, a report has found.

The UK's Climate Change Committee (CCC) described planning in Northern Ireland as being "in its infancy".

There was very limited evidence of delivery and implementation, it added.

The CCC added a lack of data prevented it assessing progress in 60% of adaptation outcomes in the NI Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NICCAP2).

Northern Ireland's executive has not met for more than a year as part of the Democratic Unionist Party's protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements.

In its first adaptation progress report, the CCC, an independent body which advises government, said "credible policies and plans" are largely not in place yet.

It added that several key policy milestones have been drafted or are being developed and have not yet been published as final versions, preventing their implementation.

The committee's review was requested by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) as part of developing the next adaptation programme, which the CCC said must go further.

The plan covers seven adaptation outcomes across five priority areas: Natural capital, infrastructure services, people and built environment, disruption to businesses and supply chains, and food security/global food production.

The committee previously warned that Northern Ireland will fall well short of its 2050 net zero emissions target without radical action

Each area has an outcome objective, with natural capital having three.

The committee found a lack of relevant data in each area it looked at.

It also examined areas not included in NICCAP2, such as health, energy and buildings.

It said the lack of data was a key barrier to assessing delivery and implementation, and that planning for climate change "remains at an early stage" in Northern Ireland.

In a foreword to the document, the committee chair Baroness Brown said that there was "an opportunity, with the renewed focus on achieving net zero, to embed climate resilience into planning now and avoid locking in decisions that can result in irreversible changes, increased damages, or higher costs when larger and faster action is required later".

In its last advice report, the committee warned that Northern Ireland will fall well short of its 2050 net zero emissions target without radical action.