The new body, appointed for a three-year term, is an expansion of the temporary Just Transition Commissioner role created for Midlands counties after the closure of the Bord na Móna peat operations.
It has 11 members, including the chair, Ali Sheridan, an independent expert on climate action and environmental management who has fronted the campaign for Ireland to back a global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The five ‘pillars’ of the agriculture, business, trade union, environment and community and voluntary sectors are represented while other members are experts in rural affairs, children’s rights and the law.
Announcing the appointments, Minister for the Environment and Climate Action Eamon Ryan said the move to a greener Ireland must be achieved fairly.
“The Commission will have an important role in advising and supporting us so that our climate policies work for everyone and benefit all communities,” he said.
“It will work to anticipate and inform long-term climate policy by focusing on the potential impacts, risks and opportunities arising from the climate transition for different sectors of the economy and society, in particular those at most risk of being left behind.”
He said a just transition would be one that fully supported people to move to “green jobs, green agriculture and green transport”.
Ms Sheridan said the commission would be guided by the responsibility to ensure the transition to a low-carbon society would transform the country in a positive way for all.
“While reaching our climate targets is now a key priority, there is much yet to be done to ensure we achieve them in a way that leaves no one and no place behind,” she said.
Members also include Vanessa Kiely O’Connor, a farmer and member of Teagasc; Michelle Murphy of Social Justice Ireland; Conor Minogue of employers’ body, IBEC; Oisín Coghlan of Friends of the Earth Ireland and Ryan McKinney of the Fórsa trade union.
Other members are Tanya Ward of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Seamus Boland of Irish Rural Link, Dr Diarmuid Torney of the Dublin City University Centre for Climate and Society, Dr Evan Boyle of the MaREI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at University College Cork and Suresh Kumar, an advisor on industrial transformation for the Scottish government.
