A climate awareness campaign, the Change
campaign, ran from 2007 to 2009. Prior to its conclusion, arrangements were put in place for the transfer of the main elements of the campaign website, Change.ie, to the Irish Library Council website. The website www.change.ie now redirects to a dedicated section on climate change on the www.askaboutireland.ie website.
Climate Change is also covered extensively in the energy theme of the Green Schools Scheme which receives funding from my Department. My Department also provides funding for a Climate Change Award under the Tidy Towns Competition.
I believe that engaging the public and stakeholders at key points in the development of climate policy and legislation also contributes significantly to raising awareness of the challenge of climate change and allows the public and stakeholders the opportunity to make their contribution to this important matter.
In this context, my Department proposes, in collaboration with the Department of Education and Skills and the EPA, to launch next month a logo design competition for the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) that will be aimed at primary school students. This competition will be an opportunity for primary schoolchildren across Ireland to showcase their imagination and design talents and to inform themselves of the role that they can play in helping Ireland to contribute to meeting the global challenge of Climate Change.
I also launched a public consultation in June 2015 on the development of a low carbon plan - the National Mitigation Plan (NMP) - the primary objective of which will be to track implementation of measures already underway and identify additional measures within the longer term to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and progress the overall national low-carbon transition agenda to 2050. My Department received 50 submissions which are currently being analysed and which I propose to publish on my Department’s website shortly. I will also be seeking the views of stakeholders and the general public on a Scoping Report on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the NMP. The purpose of the scoping report is to provide preliminary information on the proposed NMP, with a view to establishing the scope, level of detail and approach required for the associated SEA.
My Department is also currently finalising Local Authority Adaptation Strategy Guidelines, which will provide local authorities with detailed guidance on drafting their own local climate change adaptation strategies. Prior to publishing the Guidelines, my Department intends to hold a number of workshops across the country to build capacity among local authority staff to use the Guidelines correctly and also to raise awareness at local authority level of the important role that they need to play in Ireland’s adaptation to the effects of Climate Change.
My Department is also assisting EPA with the development of the Climate Ireland web platform. Climate Ireland will be a one-stop, web-based resource of climate and adaptation information for Ireland with the specific purpose of facilitating decision-makers at local and sectoral levels in planning for climate change adaptation. It will also be a useful general climate awareness tool and will be accessible to the general public via www.climateireland.ie.
In terms of future initiatives, in the context of the development of NMP, the key issue of the role of behavioural change in the low-carbon transition process will be addressed and the need to conduct further climate awareness campaigns will be considered. I am also looking at opportunities to raise awareness of COP21, to take place in Paris at the end of this year, where the 192 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet with the aim of agreeing a new global, legally binding treaty on climate change.
