Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Connolly for her very specific question for which I have a very specific answer. I spoke to the civil servant who issued the guidelines last Friday. The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 strengthens the role of local authorities in climate action. The Act sets out a statutory requirement for each local authority to prepare a local authority climate action plan within 12 months from when the Minister formally issues a request to the sector to begin the preparation of such plans. These plans were circulated to local authorities on Friday and there will be a formal launch next month. The local climate action plans have to be consistent with the most recent approved national climate plan and will include both mitigation and adaptation measures. The Act requires that they must be updated every five years. Each plan includes a decarbonising zone which is selected by the local authority. A separate technical annex has been developed as part of the guidelines to assist local authorities with this. There are a number of sections which have all been distributed now. They are the local authority climate action plan guidelines; a technical annex on developing and Implementing the local authority climate action plan; a climate change risk assessment annex; a climate mitigation assessment annex; and an annex on decarbonising zone.

See this speech in context