Andrew Jackson

Looking forward to speaking about climate law & KlimaSeniorinnen alongside @orlakelleher.bsky.social on 13th November at the Law Soc’s annual Environmental and Planning Law conference.

Registration details here www.lawsociety.ie/productdetai...

Happy to see this new article published yesterday - co-authored with @orlakelleher.bsky.social

“The implications of the European Court of Human Rights' climate rulings for climate litigation in Ireland: a new legal reality”, in the Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal

Been working on an article over the summer? Please consider submitting to the Irish Journal of European Law!

Call for papers below - please circulate! Deadline for submissions 31 October 2025.

Previous volume: isel.ie/ijel/volume-...

Quote: An obligation to quantify each country’s fair share of the remaining global carbon budget associated with limiting global heating to 1.5°C flows from the judgment in KlimaSeniorinnen.

How wide is the margin of appreciation that states have when setting national carbon budgets under the ECtHR’s KlimaSeniorinnen judgment? 🌍📉

@andrewlrjackson.bsky.social and @orlakelleher.bsky.social explain why the margin is narrower than argued on this blog.

verfassungsblog.de/quantifying-...

Bord na Móna of course ceased peat extraction in 2021, while others continue unlawfully.

Illegal peat harvesting is still taking place on a large scale, EPA report finds Local authority enforcement is ‘patently inadequate’, with equipment and warehouses on some sites

Regarding the claim here that “Bord na Móna was an excellent example of appropriate engagement with environmental regulations working”

Bord na Móna had EPA licences but did not have planning permission for any of its peat extraction. Other companies have neither.

www.irishtimes.com/environment/...

Write up of UCD’s MSc in Env and Climate Law trip to Brussels this week, part of my comparative ‘Environmental Moot Court’ module, run in partnership with universities in France, Germany & NL:

www.ucd.ie/law/news/ucd... @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social

Call for papers for the next volume of the Irish Journal of European Law. Please circulate & consider submitting something yourself! Deadline for submissions: 23rd May 2025.

Previous volume: isel.ie/ijel/volume-...

Call for papers for the next volume of the Irish Journal of European Law. Please circulate widely and consider submitting something yourself! Deadline for submissions: 23rd May 2025.

Previous volume: isel.ie/ijel/volume-...

Very happy to report that the latest volume of the Irish Journal of European Law has just been published! isel.ie/ijel/volume-...

Lots of interesting articles, as ever, and look out for the forthcoming call for papers for the next volume.

Vol 26 on Westlaw soon and on HeinOnline later.

Truly, we are at a moment when we need organizations — the ABA, ALI, law firms, law schools — speaking out.

As Judge Coughenour said, “There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?”

It’s time for the lawyers.

Glad to see the excellent article by Andrew Jackson & Orla Kelleher in the special edition of the Irish Jurist that I edited on Law in a Time of Crises was cited in today's High Court ruling by Humphreys J in Friends II courts.ie/acc/alfresco...

UCD is hiring an Ad Astra Fellow: Lecturer/Assistant Professor in International Law and Global Justice (incl climate justice)
www.ucd.ie/adastrafello...

Initial term 5 yrs with possibility of permanency after a 4-year review. Closing date: 12 noon (Irish time) on 21st Feb 2025.

Please share!

YouTube video by Community Law And Mediation CLM CEJ Webinar - Ireland's Climate Justice Obligations: Legal, Scientific, and Policy Priorities.

Provided short (<15 min) presentation www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCaD... on 1.5-2°C carbon budgets, downscaling from Global values to Ireland. My contribution starts at 4m15s.

Thanks to Rose Wall & Clodagh Daly of communitylawandmediation.ie @clmirl.bsky.social for organising the online event

The Fellow will have demonstrated expertise in public international law and diverse global justice theories.
Ad Astra appointments are made at Lecturer/Assistant Professor grade. The initial term will be five years.
Closing date: 21st February 2025 (12:00 noon IST).
Competition ref no: 018086

In other @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social news, applications are invited for an Ad Astra Fellowship in International Law and Global Justice. This recruitment opportunity is part of @ucddublin.bsky.social's plan to hire 50 early-career faculty through the Ad Astra Fellows prog
www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jo...

This was a great talk. I recommend watching the recording when it is made available.

Some great insights about the ‘new legal reality’ of the climate act and how it is being interpreted in the courts.

Thanks to Rose Wall @clmirl.bsky.social and all the speakers for putting this together

Excellent webinar, well worth watching back even for folk outside Ireland.
Chair: Rose Wall, CLM @clmirl.bsky.social
Speakers:
Prof. Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social ky.social
Dr. Andrew Jackson, UCD @andrewlrjackson.bsky.social
Oisín Coghlan, Friends of the Earth @oisinc.bsky.social

Hi Jim, yes - I understand it will be available on @clmirl.bsky.social’s YouTube channel shortly.

Looking forward to speaking about Ireland’s Climate Justice Obligations this Thursday from 12-1pm (free webinar) alongside @kevinclimate.bsky.social @oisinc.bsky.social & Rose Wall of Community Law & Mediation. Registration here us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Crikey. The judgment of Mr. Justice Humphreys in Coolglass is some read

Pages from article: IRELAND’S SECOND-GENERATION CLIMATE ACT: STILL PLAYING THE LAGGARD DURING THE CLIMATE CRISIS? (2023) 70 Irish Jurist 283

As @orlakelleher.bsky.social and I commented in a piece in the Irish Jurist in 2023, this section 15 obligation “may yet prove to be amongst the most impactful of the legal changes made to the Climate Act in 2021”!

High Court rules An Bord Pleanala must prioritise climate law in wind farm case likely to affect all public bodies The High Court has ruled that planners did not fulfil their duty to comply with climate law in a judgement expected to have far-reaching implications for all public bodies.

Very significant High Court ruling here on the obligations imposed on public bodies by Section 15 of the Climate Act
www.independent.ie/irish-news/h...

First page of judgment in Coolglass Wind Farm v An Bord Pleanála [2025] IEHC 1

High Court of 🇮🇪 yesterday “the board (largely supported by the State) recoils in horror from the logical implications of this and demands the right to continue business as usual. But an immediate end to business as usual is a precondition for planetary survival” (para 91)

courts.ie/view/judgmen...

Screenshot of Figure 4 from "Carbon Budgets Working Group Outputs Report", Climate Change Advisory Council, 2024, showing alternative Ireland scenarios for 2020-2100 with agricultural non-CO2 (methane and nitrous oxide) mitigation effort increasing from left to right. Scenarios with a blue vertical bar reach climate neutrality [= temperature neutrality] by 2050. In all cases, net zero CO2 occurs in 2043 with 2021–2050 emissions of 440 Mt. – However, the neutrality outcome temperature levels are different from different scenarios so the neutrality gauge is ambiguous. Moreover, given our and CCAC previous research it is likely that many of the neutrality outcomes are reached in overshoot of a fair share 1.5ºC level, therefore they fail a Paris Test, so Irish climate ambition is likely weakened by using a neutrality framing.

Annotated version of Figure 4 showing scenarios meeting the CCAC's "climate neutrality" framing. Level dotted lines show 2070 or peak warming. Annotation text box reads: –Range of CCAC 2024 scenarios with 
“climate neutrality” warming outcomes for Ireland. But no specified “Paris Test”1.5ºC fair share threshold level. –Result: Reduced accountability due to an unclear goal – compared to CCAC 2021 “Paris Test” – with outcomes ranging from indeterminate overshoot exceedance to possible return to 1.5ºC alignment. Annotation by Paul Price.

Ireland's expert Council is now advocating "climate neutrality" as a gauge of equitable carbon budgeting rather than its previous 1.5ºC "Paris Test".
BUT this new framing unjustly moves the goal posts in Ireland's favour.
Easier, ambiguous goal framing only hides the urgency of 1.5ºC climate action.