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Extract:

The An Taisce Climate Committee welcomes the opportunity to make a submission as part of the public consultation on updating the Clean Air Strategy 2025.

1. Legislation to Meet WHO Standards

A lack of urgency to address persistent air quality concerns, such as agricultural ammonia, or new ones (including aviation and data centre expansion) is evident in the current Clean Air Strategy (CAS) and its two progress reports. An update to the CAS may be useful but the Strategy is not currently delivering rapid improvements to Ireland’s air quality or targeting zero air pollution emissions soon enough.

Radical interventions are needed on transport, agriculture, home heating, data centres, and aviation, underpinned at all times by the principles of Just Transition and meeting the legally binding five-year carbon budgets, which are aligned with global climate justice. Once again the Climate Action Plan is being delayed contrary to scientific concerns.

We need adequate legislation, which commits Ireland to achieving WHO Clean Air Limits by 2030. The Air Pollution (Amendment) Bill 20251 was advanced in July 2025, but it has not yet been enacted. It is insufficient to meet WHO standards by 2030 and it fails to provide sufficient urgency to support a just transition or reduce pollution rapidly enough ...

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