Climate change has emerged as a policy priority at both global and national levels over the last twenty years. The emergence of national climate laws in many jurisdictions, and the emphasis on land use change as a vehicle for meeting the climate obligations enshrined in these laws, raises important questions about existing land law. The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 and Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 are highly prescriptive laws that establish a range of obligations on both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. Both laws use the language of carbon budgets, climate action plans, sector specific policy proposals and a just transition. Although there are important differences, both climate laws place a heavy emphasis on land use change as a key method of meeting legally binding emission and adaptation targets. In the area of land law reform, the reform of tenure has been studied as a way to enable agriculture which is sensitive to climate change and practiced in a way which adapts to and mitigates the impacts of climate change. Land ownership is also a critical consideration and there are important lessons from Scotland regarding reform of ownership, particularly with regard to community ownership models. Rules around planning, environmental regulation and how government policies regarding land use interact with environmental and climate obligations have also been scrutinised in academic analysis and via the courts. It is possible for land use and land law reform to become part of, rather than stand in opposition to, environmental regulation and climate change policy. This paper argues that Land law reform can (and should) enable land use reform in order to ensure climate resilience through democratic reform, community empowerment and legal change. A combination of public assistance, legal empowerment and democratisation of ownership builds powerfully into community and environmental resilience, which ultimately lie at the heart of responding to climate change.
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