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

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 issues a request to the sector to begin the preparation of such plans. The Minister issued this request last Friday.

Each plan will include a decarbonisation 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. Decarbonisation zones are intended to be the focus for a range of climate mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity measures in each local authority administrative area and will help to identify projects which will contribute to the delivery of the national climate objective. Action 165 of the national Climate Action Plan 2019 sets out that each local authority should identify and develop plans for one decarbonising zone within its respective administrative area.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage issued a circular in February 2021 to all local authorities setting out guidance around developing the zones. Action 80 of Climate Action Plan 2021 required each local authority to integrate the development of its decarbonisation zone into its local authority climate action plan. Technical Annex D of the guidelines provides specific guidance on the decarbonisation zones.

The development of the decarbonisation zone concept in Ireland has been informed by good practice in other jurisdictions and in Ireland, including the Dundalk Sustainable Energy Community, SEC, Project 2020, the Portlaoise Low Carbon town and the Dingle Hub under the Dingle SEC. These projects and experiences can be considered to be pilot projects. They have influenced the roll-out of decarbonisation zones nationally.

As test-beds and demonstrator areas, the decarbonisation zones are themselves pilot projects. The intention is that trialling decarbonising measures in smaller areas will lead to learning and the development of good practice that will then be shared nationally. The local authority climate action plan guidelines were published last Friday. This will begin the formal process to commence the development of the local climate plans and local authorities have 12 months to complete these.

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