The Climate Change Act 2019, is a principal Act of Gibraltar establishing a statutory framework for climate change mitigation, adaptation, emissions reduction and related governance. The Act sets an overriding objective to protect the climate for present and future generations and to support preventive and remedial measures against climate change. It requires the Government to develop and update greenhouse gas inventories, adopt policies for reducing Gibraltar emissions and enhancing removals, integrate climate change considerations into public policies, programmes and projects, and promote resilience, public awareness, scientific research, climate finance and international cooperation under instruments including the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC. The Act establishes mandatory emissions reduction targets, and provides rules on the net emissions account, carbon units, greenhouse gases, baselines, effort sharing emissions, emissions from international aviation and shipping, and measurement in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It also establishes the Gibraltar Climate Change Committee to advise on progress targets, target-setting criteria, sectoral contributions, use of carbon units, progress towards targets and further measures required. The Act requires the Minister to prepare a national low carbon transition, mitigation and adaptation plan at least every five years, specifying policies needed to achieve emissions reduction targets and sectoral mitigation and adaptation measures. It imposes climate change duties on public bodies, provides for guidance, monitoring and investigations, and creates reporting duties to Parliament on progress targets, policies, emissions accounts, energy generation, carbon units and the 2030 and 2045 targets. It also contains provisions on energy efficiency, renewable heat, the Climate Action Fund, waste prevention and management, waste data, recyclable waste facilities, procurement of recyclate, packaging reduction, deposit and return schemes, carrier bag charges, enforcement, penalties and reduction of transport emissions.
Gibraltar (UK) · 2019-07-23