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THREE QUARTERS of participants in the public consultation of the Clare Climate Action Plan feel that Clare County Council has a significant role to play in climate change.
By Adam Maloney
Clare County Council have issued the Draft Climate Change Action Plan roadmap for 2024-2029.
One of the most important public policy issues that countries are currently dealing with is climate change, with national bodies required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and increase tolerance to its risk and effects.
As highlighted in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act of 2021, “each local authority shall prepare and make a plan relating to a period of five years which shall specify the mitigation measures and the adaption measures to be adopted by the local authority”.
Climate Action Officer with Clare County Council, Chris Dixon O’Mara provided an update on the Climate Action Plan before this month’s sitting of the Social Development strategic policy committee.
He stated, “There are three stages of the development action plan, the first stage is the Initiation, so we run it through a mission’s report, which includes a process of pre-draft stakeholder engagement and we develop a summary report. The second stage is the Draft Plan, we then go and publish that draft plan and had six weeks of public consultation which concluded on November 24th collect all submissions. Then the final step is the completion of the plan, so, we have to address those submissions that come in from the public consultation and then the adoption of draft action plan is scheduled”.
Dixon noted that “very complicated assessments” had been completed for Co Clare including an issues report and a climate risk report meeting assessment. The initiatives members created a summary report to evaluate the risks and present the assets and activities of the county council in a way that would be understandable to the wider public.
“With this document, we went out and undertook a pre-draft stakeholder engagement, in June and July we had a consultation survey, we decided to give the youths a voice, so we gave a survey to all that went out to all Transition Year students in Co Clare. We also had workshops with other local authorities across the country, and we also have a lot of media engagement as well. So, all this consultation really was a success, as we had 250 submissions and three draft consultations, and with all that feedback, we were able to draft a plan”, the Climate Action Officer stated.
Workshops were held throughout the county by the Development Plan board, in which there are 87 actions overall in the plan. “this plan is not just for one part of the Council, every section and every part of the Council has some element of action associated with it. So, we had another workshop with these sections, some work socially, some nationally, in departments, and some work in local authorities”.
Chris continued, “We wanted to make sure that, the national policy that is out there equippers down to our action plan. So, all the actions, the roles, the objectives, the mission, and the vision of the plan. That’s how this all came together”.
This action plan is not just about addressing high risk for the Climate Action Officer, “it’s not about abusing our issues as a county, and as a local authority, it’s really about maximising these opportunities with a plan of action. I think that’s why we got so much feedback”, he said.
75% of the replies felt that Clare County Council has a significant role to play in addressing climate change.
There are five different sections to the Climate Action Plan, Governance and Leadership, Built and Environment, Transport, Communities and Partnerships, and Natural Environment.
There are two main objectives for the Governance and Leadership section that requires the Council, which are firstly to “establish processes that facilitate the integration of climate into decision making and enable climate action transparency and accountability; and secondly, mainstream climate action throughout all of Clare County Council’s strategic, financial and operational planning”.
“Across Co Clare, obviously the plan is good as its implemented. People are engaging with this plan; people are addressing different areas where they see different opportunities and highlighting different actions, such as economic growth, better mobility, proving public health, service delivery, better infrastructure, better resiliency, and increased security. This helps the communication with the general public and will aid us going forward in terms of next steps”, Dixon O’Mara concluded.
