Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I apologise that the Minister is unable to be here himself and he has asked me to respond to this matter. I listened with great interest to what the Deputy said about the situation in Galway. While I am a very strong supporter of more cycle lanes everywhere I cannot, on behalf of the Government, intervene in that particular discussion here in the Dáil Chamber.

The discussion proposed for the Topical Issues matter is the role of local authorities in the delivery of climate action. Local authorities will continue to play an increasingly important role in meeting our climate obligations. In 2018 the Department established four climate action regional offices, CAROs, around the country to drive climate action at a local level. These CAROs have already played a key role in supporting the national climate policy, through co-ordinating the development of local adaptation strategies, through developing the role of the local authority sector in supporting the implementation of climate mitigation policy, as well as through community engagement and contributing to the national dialogue on climate action.

Climate action is a relatively new challenge for the local authority sector and will require new skill sets and capacities to be developed within each local authority over time. In recognition of this, the Department is funding a local authority climate action training programme. More than 9,000 local authority staff received training in 2021 under this programme. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 enshrines the national climate objective to pursue and achieve, by no later than 2050, the transition to a climate-resilient and biodiversity-rich, environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral economy.

Section 16 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 sets out the provisions governing the establishment and operation of local authority climate action plans and requires that "Each local authority shall prepare and make a plan relating to a period of five years (... referred to as a ‘local authority climate action plan’) which shall specify the mitigation and the adaptation measures to be adopted by the local authority." The first such plan is to be developed within 12 months of the receipt of a request from the Minister, which request shall be made not later than 18 months after the coming into operation of the Act, and in the case of each subsequent plan, not less than once in every period of five years.

The local authority climate action plans will be progressed in three phases: phase 1 is to establish the evidence base and the delivery of the national Climate Action Plan 2021; phase 2 is the development of the local authority climate action plans; and phase 3 is the implementation of the local authority climate action plan.

The Climate Action Plan 2021 identified nearly 90 actions with dedicated time frames for delivery and reporting in 2021 for which local authorities have direct responsibility or are key stakeholders in their delivery. These actions are currently being developed through local authorities and will be reported on through the monitoring of the Climate Action Plan 2021. Each local authority will be responsible for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from across its own assets and infrastructure, while also taking on a broader role of influencing and facilitating others to meet their own targets. They are entrusted to work through their regulatory and strategic functions to operationalise the ambitious national climate targets and policy at local levels, to help in the delivery of the national climate objective.

The local authority climate action plan is a key instrument that will strengthen the links between national and international climate policy and the delivery of effective climate action at local and community levels. This will be an important measure to ensure the environmental, social and economic benefits that come with climate action are fully realised.

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