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. Paddy Mahon:

I will begin. As I said, there is timeline issue in that not every local authority is on the same point on the journey in adopting the county and city development plans. In some cases there is an opportunity for alignment between the climate action plan we will all commence probably later on this year and the county development plans which are in the process of being reviewed. In some cases where climate action adaptation plans include mitigation measures, there is the opportunity, as Mr. Dodd said, for those to be incorporated in the development plan that is being rolled out. In cases where the development plans are already adopted, there is a challenge to merge the legal obligations that come with the climate action plan and the county development plan that has been adopted. As a sector we need to begin to understand what emissions we are creating, how to measure them and how to reduce them. That is something the sector, with the support of the climate action regional offices, is beginning to examine. The guidelines developed to assist us to prepare our climate action plans will allow us to do that. We have done good work on climate action in responding to climate change. The sector has met its targets on energy efficiency. That is as a result of a combined approach across all sections of-----