Executive Summary
Climate Change has been identified as the defining social, economic and environmental challenge of our time. Local Government has been identified as a key player in leading climate action at a local, community-based level and planning for the effects of climate change has now become a key challenge. Local Authorities (LAs) have been tasked with levering support and resources to deliver effective climate action from the ground up. This approach has been made into law requiring each Local Authority in the country to lead in Climate Action at a county level. It is envisaged that leadership will be plan-led namely through a Local Authority Climate Action Plan (LACAP).
These LACAPs will be key instruments that strengthen the links between local, regional, national and international climate policy. The Plans will need to deliver effective climate action at the local and community level through place-based and evidence-based climate action. The LACAPs are statutory 5-year plans and are required to include mitigation and adaptation actions that ultimately provide pathways to achieve a decarbonised society. Each LACAP is to be adopted by Elected Members in 2024 and will last for 5 years.
Over this period Galway County Council (GCC) will be responsible for enhancing climate resilience, increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, across its own assets, services and infrastructure. GCC will also need to proactively use its broader role of influencing, coordinating/facilitating and advocating other sectors to meet their own climate targets and ambitions, as envisaged in the Table 1 below.
Adaptation
Full Accountability
Delivering on climate action in areas within own remit: including local authority’s own buildings, infrastructure, systems, operations and staff.
Influence
Influence sectors and communities on climate action
Direct: Procurement / supply chains and staff protocols.
Regulatory: Decision making on planning and development, waste, byelaws, application of standards.
Broad: Through the provision of services across the range of functions, prioritisaton, channelling investment etc.
Co-ordinate & Facilitate
Coordinate efforts between different stakeholders e.g.
Decarbonisation Zones and Facilitate through the identification of funding, use of regulatory levers.
Collaborate and engage in partnerships on climate action.
Advocate
Creating the local vision, communication, awareness raising, promotion, capacity building.
Mitigation
Table 1: The Role of Galway County Council (Source: Local Authority Climate Action Plan Guidelines, 2023)
This Plan outlines the ambition of GCC in climate action and sets out a clear Vision and Mission. The Vision describes how a climate-resilient county will look in 2030 and on to 2050. The Mission Statement outlines how GCC will meet that vision. Internally the ambition is to meet its own emissions and energy efficiency targets. They are a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a 50% improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. Externally the LA seeks to influence, advocate and facilitate climate action ambitions within the local community. These ambitions and pathways to achieve targets are outlined in this Plan.
The Plan is divided into several sections.
SECTION 1 | Local Authority Climate Action Planning
Provides an introduction to the plan-making process, placing in context the scope and ambition of the LACAP relative to national legally binding targets.
SECTION 2 and 3 | Risk Assessment and Evidence Base
Provides information on the baseline emissions data used to inform the Plan and an overview of the Climate Change Risk Assessment prepared for the LACAP. Both have been used to inform the plan-making process, placing in context the challenges faced by the county in meeting national emissions targets.
SECTION 4 | Framework of Climate Action
The focus of the Plan, outlining the strategic goals, objectives and actions that aim to bring to fruition the vision and mission. The actions aim to be specific, measurable, action-focused, realistic and timebound (SMART).
SECTION 5 | Aran Islands Decarbonising Zone
As required, the Plan also includes a Decarbonising Zone (DZ). The area identified in Galway is the Aran Islands. The aim of the DZ is to identify pathways to meet the national emission reduction target of 51% by 2030 and net zero by end of 2050 (from the baseline year of 2018). Learnings will be gathered in the DZ on the real-life experiences and challenges to meet these targets across all sectors. This specific place-based approach seeks to promote wider collaboration with all stakeholders to create tailored policies to deliver climate action.
SECTION 6 | Implementation
The ability of the Local Authority sector to demonstrate performance on climate action will form a crucial component in successfully illustrating if and how the sector is leading by example, and what role Local Authorities are playing in national climate action targets. This section outlines three key activities that GCC must consider once the Plan is adopted: planning for Implementation; tracking progress through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and reporting requirements and arrangements.
As required the Galway LACAP 2024-2029 has been subject to a Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA). Mitigation as required by environmental assessment has been incorporated into this LACAP.
Vision and Mission
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