Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Challenge and Opportunity for Local Authorities in Climate Action: Discussion

Mr. Nicholas Crossan:

Climate change has huge challenges for local government, but also huge opportunities. We see challenges in the training provided, which gives our members the necessary skills to empower the general public and bring it along with us. We are all sceptical of change from time to time but it is important that local members are upskilled as well as we can be to serve our communities. The opportunities include more responsibility for local authorities because we know the local leads and have local knowledge of our areas and how best to serve them with regard to climate change.

A strong point came through concerning sustainable development goals. They have to be incorporated across all Departments, whether in our national plan, our local area plan, regional plan or whatever.