The DUP has stressed that the final text of Northern Ireland's Climate Change Act ended up tougher than it had wanted, after the law was used this week to scupper the A5 project.

The act was brought in by DUP farming minister and former party leader Edwin Poots in 2022, and questions are now being asked about how much the law hampers development.

It all comes after the High Court in Belfast said that the 2022 act was a reason why it ruled against the construction of the A5 dual carriageway.

The act commits Northern Ireland to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

placeholder image — Edwin Poots, pictured here in his time as farming minister, brought in the Climate Change Act in 2022

The High Court said that the government had been wrong to give the green light to the A5 because it had not provided enough information on how the new road would fit in with this 2050 target.

On Monday, after the court issued its ruling, TUV leader Jim Allister told the News Letter "what it really points up is the absolute folly of the statutory provisions in the Climate Change Act" which had "tied the government’s hands behind its back", indicating that it could have a similar constraining effect on other big infrastructure projects too.

And DUP MLA Deborah Erskine, the chairwoman of Stormont's infrastructure committee, said on Monday that “if climate change legislation is an obstacle for delivering major infrastructure schemes then this will have to be looked at as a matter of priority".

When the bill had passed its final stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly in March 2022, then-agriculture minister Mr Poots issued a statement saying he "welcomes [the] ground-breaking climate change legislation".

During the bill's final stage debate in the Assembly, Mr Poots had said: "I am pleased that my Climate Change (No. 2) Bill has reached its final stage…

"Some said that I could not or would not bring the legislation forward, but it is clear, as I stand here today, that those accusations were unfounded.

"I am grateful for the support that my Bill has received during its passage through the Assembly. Climate change affects everyone in Northern Ireland and on the planet, and it requires people to respond at local and global levels."

But he also raised concerns about how stringent the bill had become by that point, saying: "Unfortunately, however, at consideration stage, a majority of members of the assembly agreed to change the headline target in the bill to net zero emissions by 2050 – and that really was done for a headline.

"It is purely an aspirational target and one that, unless we invest huge amounts of money or acquire carbon credits, we are unlikely to achieve."

Asked about its stance on the climate change act this week, the DUP said in a statement: "The A5 ruling cites section 52 of the Climate Change Act as binding upon the Northern Ireland Executive, to meet the target of net zero by 2050 as set out in Section 1 of the Act, as reason this project cannot proceed.

"As the climate bill was progressing through the legislative process, the DUP, through our then-DAERA minister Edwin Poots, had sought an 82% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, which reflected our concern that a more stringent target would have significant consequences on major infrastructure projects.

"However, this was then overruled by an amendment brought by the Green Party, with the support of Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance that set the target of net zero in Section 1 cited by the judge in his ruling.

"The DUP has warned of these consequences repeatedly."

The party also pointed the News Letter to comments from MLA Tom Buchanan in December 2024, while the bill was still in progress, saying "there is an urgent need to inject a sense of realism into Northern Ireland's climate ambitions" and urged MLAs "to consider changing course''.