RSUA’s Responds to DAERA’s Consultation
The Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) launched a consultation on Climate Change Reporting by Specified Public Bodies – Developing New Regulations. These regulations are required to be made under the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.
The deadline to this consultation is 9th June 2023. RSUA has formulated a response in conjunction with the climate emergency committee. Special thanks to Ben Aston, Ben James and Barry Mc Carron.
Key points from RSUA’s response include:
- RSUA believes that specified bodies should provide their adaptation reports every 2 years in NI. The Scottish and Irish governments require a selection of their public bodies to report annually against these duties which covers mitigation and in Scotland, adaptation reporting also. (1.5.1 and Annex 2 of the full-length consultation). RSUA recommends reporting should be more frequent than every 5 years but not as frequently as every year. Scotland is a good benchmark for Northern Ireland as another devolved region/country of the United Kingdom. It is also important for NI to be cognisant of the approach being taken in the Republic of Ireland as the challenges of responding to climate change are very similar across the island of Ireland and actions will require some degree of co-ordination to be as effective as possible.
- RSUA believes that specified public bodies should provide their first adaptation report as soon as possible. RSUA recommends that the adaptation reports should be provided in January 2025, aligning with the independent expert climate change advice from the CCC (3.4.2 of the full-length consultation). Requiring adaptation reports to be provided before the mitigation reports could help inform the mitigation report. A January 2025 deadline will enable the report to feed into the fourth UK Climate Change Risk Assessment and the NI Climate Change Adaptation Programme.
- RSUA believes that specified bodies should provide their mitigation reports every 2 years in NI which aligns with the independent expert climate change advice from the CCC (3.4.2 full-length consultation). As mentioned in question 1, the Scottish and Irish governments require a selection of their public bodies to report annually against these duties which covers mitigation and in Scotland, adaptation reporting also (1.5.1 and Annex 2 of the full-length consultation). RSUA recommends reporting should be more frequent than every 5 years but not as frequently as every year. RSUA believes reporting every 2 years should be frequent enough to inform and drive climate action in NI.
To view RSUA’s full response, please click here.
If you have any queries, please call Lucy Mulgrew at 07483346160 or email lucy@rsua.org.uk.
