*Morgan Lahiffe (far right) becomes the Council’s first climate action co-ordinator. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
BAREFIELD’S MORGAN LAHIFFE has been appointed as the new climate action co-ordinator within Clare County Council.
Morgan moves to the role from the post of senior executive officer in the Killaloe Municipal District, prior to this he had been a senior engineer in the West Clare Municipal District serving as one of the key local authority staff involved in the DDF Irish Open’s successful run in Lahinch in 2019. He had been working in Municipal Districts for fourteen years.
Addressing a sitting of the Physical Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) of the County Council, Morgan outlined, “human interference and the way we do things across the globe is impacting on the rise of temperature”.
He referred to the regular mentioning of “plateau and flattening the curve” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and felt a similar way of thinking was required from the public to get to grips with climate change, “We have to adapt and be more resilient”.
Positions of community climate officer and climate action officer are yet to be advertised within the local authority. “The climate action team right now is me, I’m the climate action co-ordinator. Climate action is a whole of Clare County Council issue and all directorates have responsibility in realising climate action objectives throughout the organisation,” Lahiffe stated. “It’s important to say, the climate action team isn’t very big but climate action is the responsibility of the whole Council”.
“Climate Action Plans will be devoted to urgent solutions to both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and planning for and addressing the inevitable impacts and risks of climate change,” he explained. The plans need to be “ambitious, action based, evidence based, participative and transparent,” Morgan said.
Lahiffe said that it was expected Minister for Climate, Communications and Energy, Eamon Ryan (GP) would “press the button” on the climate action plan in late February. Once this occurs, Clare County Council will have twelve months to formulate their Climate Action Plan which will then have to be adopted by elected members of the Council.
As part of the work, the climate team will have to develop an evidence basis for the county and decarbonisation zone, to find out the entire emissions for the county with stakeholder engagement at Municipal District anticipated to be a big aspect of the preparation.
Retrofitting of all Council houses to B2 standards in a bid to reduce emissions and similarly with buildings owned by the local authority are expected to be included as objectives of the plan. “The drafting of the plan will continue over a few months but the bottom line is its going to be a framework of climate actions that we will look to deliver over the following five years,” the climate action co-ordinator commented.
Clare County Council’s transport fleet will also undergo changes. “There’s no quick wins transportation fleet is a huge one. The change to hydrogen based fuel or HBO fuel we’re not there yet,” Morgan stated.
Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) was adamant Lahiffe had a sizeable amount of work ahead of him, “we all know it is a big task and there’s no point saying anything else”. Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) was keen that extra members of the team be put in place, “I certainly hope it will be more than a one man team before we know it”.
