![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AlexWhiteSC.jpg\")
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Lawyer and former government minister Alex White SC has been appointed as chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC).<\/p>\n
Mr White\u2019s appointment for a five-year term was confirmed yesterday alongside the reappointment of Professor Peter Thorne, Dr Cara Augustenborg and Jillian Mahon as ordinary members.<\/p>\n
A barrister and accredited mediator, Mr White is the director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIAE) as well as a member of the National Paediatric Hospital\u2019s development board and the board of Trinity College Dublin.<\/p>\n
He was the minister for communications, energy and natural resources from 2014 to 2016, and minister of state in the Department of Health from 2012 to 2014.<\/p>\n
He has served as a TD, chairing an Oireachtas committee from 2011 to 2012; as a Senator, including as leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad; and as a member of two local authorities.<\/p>\n
Prior to commencing legal practice in 1994, Mr White was a radio producer with RT\u00c9. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he studied economic and social studies, and of the King\u2019s Inns.<\/p>\n
The Climate Change Advisory Council was established on a statutory basis in January 2016 under section 8 of the Climate and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.<\/p>\n
Its function includes advising ministers and government on climate policy, conducting annual and periodic reviews of progress in furthering the achievement of reducing emissions as well as proposing carbon budgets.<\/p>\n
Climate, energy and environment minister Darragh O\u2019Brien said: \u201cAt the outset, I would like to express my thanks to the outgoing chair, Ms Marie Donnelly, for her contribution and commitment to the Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish to welcome the new chair of the Council, Mr Alex White. Mr White will bring a breadth of relevant expertise and experience to the role of chair across the legal, energy, communications, political and stakeholder fields.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also important to ensure business continuity and to address the large turnover of the Council. As such, I also, wish to express my gratitude to the three current members being re-appointed for a second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of these ordinary members have contributed substantially to the work of the Council in their current term bringing their unique experience and expertise which I have no doubt will continue to enrich the Council\u2019s skillset and play a key role in our ability to decarbonise our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere remain four vacancies on the Council to be filled, and it is my intention to bring a further memorandum to government shortly with recommendation to fill all current and upcoming vacancies in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawyer and former government minister Alex White SC has been appointed as chair of the Climate Change Advisory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-364223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}