Delivering the judgment of the court this morning, Chief Justice Frank Clarke said the National Mitigation Plan did not meet the requirements of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.

Friends of the Irish Environment claimed that the government had failed to vindicate rights under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the plan was ultra vires the relevant legislation.

Its case was dismissed by Mr Justice MacGrath in the High Court last September and appealed to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Clarke concluded that the plan “falls well short of the level of specificity required … to comply with the provisions of the 2015 Act” and said, on that basis, that the plan should be quashed.

However, he “did not consider it appropriate to address the rights-based arguments put forward” because FIE, as a corporate entity which does not enjoy in itself the right to life or the right to bodily integrity, does not have standing to maintain the rights-based arguments sought to be put forward.