UFU Deputy President John McLenaghan, on his farm near Garvagh. Picture: Cliff Donaldson
The Ulster Farmers Union’ is calling, again, for MLAs to revisit the Climate Change Northern Ireland Act 2022, in its recently submitted response to the draft Climate Action Plan for NI.
Commenting, UFU deputy president John McLenaghan said, “Within our response to the draft Climate Action Plan for NI, we made it very clear that the climate change act for NI needs to be reconsidered. The Climate Change Committee experts advised that net zero for NI was unachievable when the proposals were first going through the political system. Based on the scientific evidence presented by the CCC, we have had no option but to consistently oppose the net zero by 2050 target for NI and now we’re starting to see the consequences of the populist vote. The 2022 Climate Change Act has recently affected the progression of infrastructure projects and this is only the beginning of the wider implications for society.”
Since the implementation of NI’s climate change act by Stormont, the farming community has been left to manage the outworkings of a bad piece of legislation.
“There have been multiple consultations in recent months, and so much time and resources have been wasted dealing with various requirements of this ill thought through legislation. For example, our UFU environment committee have been asked to work through yet another consultation, this time on the fourth carbon budget which sets the next pathway in law towards the unachievable net zero target for NI.
“MLAs must revisit the climate change act urgently. It won’t be a straightforward fix. The way the legislation was created ensures it cannot be easily amended, the process will be slow. However, it does not allow our political representatives to bury their heads in the sand and continue as is. They need to reconsider what they have imposed, not just on farmers, but on wider society, including the inevitable financial cost on every individual within society. We will continue to lobby, raising our objections to NI’s climate change legislation and the 2050 targets until MLAs finally act to improve the situation for everyone,” said Mr McLenaghan.
