Of the 71 actions planned in Meath County Council’s climate action plan 2024-2029 53 were completed during the last year, climate action officer Mary D’Arcy told the April meeting of the council. She said that of the 53 actions 46 were recurrent, 18 were in progress. Climate action was embedded into the day-to-day activities of the council rather than just “stand alone” projects. Emission reduction and energy efficiency is tracked. Statistics on progress are expected to be completed by the second quarter of this year, the official said.
The council has a target of reducing emission of 46% over the next six years. Dealing with energy performance she said that in 2024 energy performance had improved by 31% since 2009. The county council must improve by 19% within the next six years to achieve its targets. “Currently, the council’s emissions and energy efficiency are above the trajectory even to meet these”. Over 200 council staff have been trained on capacity building for climate action across the whole of the local authority. Public lighting retrofitting replacement with Led lighting is at 64%. Active travel projects for walking and cycling have seen a €13.5m investment. 7.41km investment in active travel
has been delivered, Ms D’Arcy said.
Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O’Connor said that he and a number of other councillors were working on the Climate Action Forum which was used to influence and inform the climate action team in relation to local issues. It also allowed them to get a preview of some of the initiatives proposed by the climate action team. The forum, a voluntary group formed in 2019, met 4-5 times a year and he hoped councillors would buy into the idea so that they can keep their constituents informed. It was a very well worthwhile forum, Cllr O’Connor said.
Independent Cllr David Gilroy said the role of the climate action team was a very important one in achieving reduction in emissions and an improvement in energy efficiency.
Sinn Fein Cllr Michael Gallagher said the feedback he was getting from the farming community was that they wanted to work towards improving their efficiency.
Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin said he took on board what was being said about participation in the climate action forum. He thought it very important that councillors should actively participate in it “because we have very important climate targets to reach by 2030”. He said there were “fun and educational” events coming up in the next few weeks and these would present huge opportunities to get families together so that they have a look as what was being done and could be done in terms of climate action.
Independent Cllr Joe Bonner said that every time he attended a meeting he was amazed at the amount of work that was going on behind the scenes in terms of climate action.
Sinn Fein Cllr Helen Meyer, a member of the voluntary forum, said that the climate action officer was “very encouraging”. She had seen a number of projects on climate action in Ashbourne and these were very successful.
Council director of services for climate action, Barry Lynch, thanked Mary D’Arcy for all the work she and her team had done throughout the council and the local communities. He encouraged everyone to get involved in decarbonisation projects. He wanted residents and businesses to get involved in the nine decarbonisation zones throughout the county.
