Stormont's deputy First Minister accuses MLAs of 'virtue signalling frenzy' and failing to explain benefits of new £1m climate tsar

​The deputy first minister says the assembly should vote to stop the creation of a new climate change commissioner post – arguing that the role is not needed and duplicates the work of numerous other bodies who can advise government on net-zero targets.

Writing in today’s News Letter, the Lagan Valley MLA says that advocates of creating the quango have been unable to explain how it will help tackle climate change, “instead, it is dressed up in vague terms about ‘raising awareness’ or ‘holding government to account’.”

The post is expected to cost at least £1m per year – and will see around 15 new staff appointed.

A divide between the first and deputy first ministers emerged earlier this week when the DUP minister distanced herself from some of her Sinn Fein counterpart’s comments about the post. The DUP and TUV sought to vote down regulations creating the new commissioner’s office.

However, Sinn Fein, Alliance and Ulster Unionist MLAs linked the debate to recent wildfires in the Mournes. UUP deputy leader Robbie Butler said the fires were “avoidable” and that a climate change commissioner could “play a specific role” in addressing deliberate fires.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it was a “dereliction of duty” by the DUP to vote against the regulations.

“I think it'll be very short-sighted for anybody to have this debate today not very conscious and acutely aware that the Mournes are on fire, that Lough Neagh is in crisis, that flooding is becoming an everyday reality for many people,” she said.

However, Ms Little-Pengelly said in today’s News Letter: “It seems unlikely that in the face of worldwide debates on climate change that a local commissioner will be a game-changer in terms of public awareness.

“Holding government to account is also one of the core functions of MLAs. That went unnoticed in the midst of a virtue signalling frenzy which was a substitute for evidence of tangible benefits that would be delivered.”

The Climate Change Act was passed by MLAs in 2022 after the Green Party brought forward alternative legislation to departmental legislation proposed by former environment minister Edwin Poots.

DUP MLA Brian Kingston this week described the legislation as “a political compromise in the face of” the Greens’ legislation.

Since its inception it has been beset by delays, partly due to the collapse of the institutions – and there have been questions about whether Stormont could deliver the “ambitious” targets within it.

Stormont’s then agriculture minister Mr Poots was warned by the chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) in March 2022 about the risk of ambitious targets damaging the credibility of the plans.

In response to the legislation, Lord Debin said: “The implication of the new 2050 target is that Northern Ireland must outperform all five of the Net Zero Pathways that the CCC developed … requiring a major step-up in policy and rapid progress over the 2020s.”

The Climate Action Plan created as a result of the legislation sets out Northern Ireland’s approach to meeting the ‘carbon budget’ for 2023 to 2027 through a set of proposals and policies for emissions reductions.

Read Emma Little-Pengelly’s opinion piece from the Friday News Letter : More bureaucracy and advice from a climate change commissioner - we don’t need another quango

It will also establish a ‘pathway’ towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Climate Change Act was passed by Stormont in 2022 – but is yet to be fully implemented.

The act creates a target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with a reduction of at least 48% in net emissions by 2030.

The law also places a duty on Daera to establish a ‘Just Transition Commission’ to oversee implementation and provide advice to departments. Minister Andrew Muir launched a consultation on the body in November.

Speaking at the time he said: “The Just Transition approach we are taking ensures that as we transition to a low-carbon society and economy that we do so in a way which is fair and just and does not leave anyone behind.

“The consultation is a key milestone to move this forward and ensure we establish a commission that delivers on the functions envisaged by the assembly, as set out in the Climate Change Act.”