Fossil fuel divestment act 2018

• Enactment Date: 17 December 2018
• Act Number: 29

Number 29 of 2018
FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT ACT 2018
CONTENTS
1. Amendment of National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014
2. Short title
Acts Referred to
Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 (No. 46)
Companies Act 2014 (No. 38)
National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014 (No. 23)
Number 29 of 2018
FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT ACT 2018
An Act to impose certain prohibitions and restrictions with respect to the investment by the National Treasury Management Agency of assets of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in fossil fuel undertakings and, in particular, to require that Agency to endeavour to ensure that such assets are not directly invested in such an undertaking (and, where it becomes aware that an undertaking in which such assets have been so invested by it is, or has become, a fossil fuel undertaking, to divest the assets of that fund from such investment); to make provision for a restriction on such investment when the investment is of an indirect nature (as defined hereafter); to provide for a certain exception to the prohibition on investment of assets of that fund in such an undertaking where the investment is consistent with the national transition objective (as defined hereafter), the implementation of the State‘s climate change objectives and Government policy; for those purposes to amend the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014 ; and to provide for related matters.
[17th December, 2018]
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
		Amendment of National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014
1. The National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014 is amended—
	(a) in section 49—
	(i) in paragraph (f), by deleting the second instance of the word “and”,
	(ii) in paragraph (g), by substituting “Fund, and” for the word “Fund.”, and
	(iii) by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (g):
	“(h) measures taken in accordance with section 49A, as inserted by the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018.”,
	and
	(b) by inserting the following new section after section 49—
	“Investment in Fossil Fuel Undertakings
	49A. (1) In this section—
	‘fellow subsidiary undertakings’, ‘higher holding undertaking’, ‘holding undertaking’, ‘subsidiary undertaking’ and ‘undertaking’ have the respective meanings given to them by the Companies Act 2014 ;
	‘fossil fuel’ means coal, oil, natural gas, peat or any derivative thereof intended for use in the production of energy by combustion;
	‘fossil fuel undertaking’ means an undertaking which is—
	(a) engaged, for the time being, in the exploration for or extraction or refinement of a fossil fuel where such activity accounts for 20 per cent or more of the turnover of that undertaking, as derived from its most recently published audited financial statements,
	(b) a holding undertaking or, as the...