Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021

PART 2

Amendment of Principal Act

Amendment of section 1 of Principal Act

3. Section 1 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“‘administrative area’ has the meaning assigned to it by the Act of 2001;

‘annual report’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 12(1)(b);

‘approved climate action plan’ means a climate action plan approved by the Government under section 4(9);

‘approved national long term climate action strategy’ means a national long term climate action strategy approved by the Government under section 4(9);

‘biodiversity’ means the variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part, and includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems;

‘budget period’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 6A(1);

‘carbon budget’ means the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are permitted during the budget period;

‘carbon budget programme’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 6A(2);

‘climate action plan’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 4(1)(a);

‘climate neutral economy’ means a sustainable economy and society where greenhouse gas emissions are balanced or exceeded by the removal of greenhouse gases;

‘joint committee’ has the meaning assigned to it by the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013 ;

‘national climate objective’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 3(1);

‘national long term climate action strategy’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 4(1)(b);

‘provisional carbon budget’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 6A(3);

‘sectoral emissions ceiling’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 6C(1);”,

(b) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “emissions”:

“‘emissions’ means, in relation to greenhouse gases, emissions of those gases into the earth’s atmosphere attributable to industrial, agricultural, energy or other anthropogenic activities in the State;”,

(c) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “removal”:

“‘removal’ means, in relation to greenhouse gases, the removal of those gases from the earth’s atmosphere through the use of natural or technological solutions, including the creation or enhancement of sinks, or a change of land use, in the State;”,

and

(d) by the deletion of the following definitions:

(i) “approved national mitigation plan”;

(ii) “national mitigation plan”;

(iii) “national transition objective”;

(iv) “sectoral mitigation measures”.