Dublin City Council Climate Action Plan 2019 - 2024

The Dublin City Council Climate Action Plan 2019 - 2024 was first published in 2019, consulted in early 2020 and formally adopted in May 2020 by the City Council of Dublin in Ireland. The plan contains climate mitigation and adaptation actions that cover five key areas: energy and buildings, transport, flood resilience, nature-based solutions and resource management. The key aims of the plan is to improve energy use by the Council, reduce the Council's greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, make Dublin a climate resilient region and actively engage and inform citizens of climate change. Among the targets of the strategy are reducing area of soil sealing, protecting native species, parks and tree cover and creating continuous green space along the city's rivers. Included measures are, for example, establishing a regional working group on nature-based solutions and cross-departmental working group on trees and sustainable urban drainage systems to promote and pilot water sensitive urban design, developing green infrastructure strategy, mapping access to green space in the city to identify areas of need, or conducting tree planting activities with schools. The plan will be updated every five years to reflect latest policy, technology and climate -related impacts. The plan was created in response to the requirements of the National Adaptation Framework and Action 181 of the National Climate Action Plan of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Sectoral strategy, plan, or law

Challenges addressed

Ecologic connectivity
Water management (e.g. reuse)
Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Watershed restoration/water quality
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Heat stress and heat island effect
Air quality

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

Nature-based solutions are among the five key action areas covered by the plan. The plan includes a number of overarching measures such as establishing a regional working group on nature-based solutions and cross-departmental working group on trees and sustainable urban drainage systems to promote and pilot water sensitive urban design, developing green infrastructure strategy, mapping access to green space in the city to identify areas of need, or conducting tree planting activities with schools. Among the targets of the strategy are reducing area of soil sealing, protecting native species, parks and tree cover and creating continuous green space along the city's rivers.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Parks and (semi)natural urban green areas

Allotments, community gardens or agricultural areas

Blue areas

Green areas for water management

External building greens

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Sustainable in the long-term

Locally appropriate

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Dublin City Council

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The Dublin City Council has produced a first version of the Climate Change Action Plan in association with Codema (Dublin’s Energy Agency) and the Dublin Metropolitan Climate Action Regional Office (CARO) in response to the requirements of the National Adaptation Framework and Action 181 of the National Climate Action Plan of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. In the development process over 60 members of staff from across Dublin's four local authorities were consulted. The document was then consulted with the public. In February 2020, nearly 500 people attended the launch event for the plan’s six-week consultation period, during which over 240 submissions were received.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Private sector, corporate, business

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Type of actor involvement:

Civil society consultation through e.g. workshops, surveys

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

The actions in the plan are aimed at the Dublin City Council, Dublin's for local authorities and other agencies and units. At the same time the plan recognises that the council's buildings, operations and social housing account for less than 5% of the total emissions in the city. In recognising this challenge, Dublin City Council plans to work with key stakeholders to influence and support carbon reduction initiatives across the city's transport, commercial and residential sectors. The plan also includes a range of awareness and behavioural change actions to encourage citizens to act on climate change.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Actions for climate mitigation and adaptation

Targeted actors:

Public sector institution (e.g. school or hospital)

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Budget:

Unknown

Details about instrument financing:

A total budget of preparing the plan or implementing the actions across it is not given. The plan mentions that the local authority will seek financial support from EU programmes and encourage private commercial opportunities where possible to deliver solutions.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Is a monitoring framework in place?:

Yes

The plan is monitored and updated on an annual basis, with the review and revision every five years. As part of the monitoring process, the Dublin Assistant Chief Executive for Environment and Transportation reports on progress to the Environment Strategic Policy Committee of the Dublin City Council (SPC) annually and the SPC monitors progress towards the set targets. Additionally to the internal monitoring, the Council reports to an external body: the Council is a signatory to the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy to which it submits a standarised Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) reports every two years on the implementation progress of the plan.

Did an evaluation take place?:

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

The plan, together with a number of other strategies, have facilitated collaboration across departments and applying of an interdisciplinary approach that allowed to prioritise nature-based solutions with their multiple benefits (and ability to support the goals of different strategies). As a result of the plan a cross-departmental working group on sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) has been formed, and SUDS measures such as tree planting and rain gardens were being implemented across the city. The local authority responsible for parks management (DCC Parks) has launched projects to map the trees of Dublin and collect data on the health of the trees, support proactive management of trees in response to climate crisis. Another project launched to explore food production, consumption and waste and engage local community with the topic and its relation to climate change. In February 2020, nearly 500 people attended the launch event for the plan’s six-week consultation period, during which over 240 submissions were received.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The Climate Change Action Plan is a result of a wide collaboration of various actors. It has been prepared by all of the Dublin's four local authorities, and build upon the results of consultations with staff from across the municipality's various departments. It has also been prepared in consideration of and in synergy with various other existing plans and policies. This inter-departmental collaboration and dialogue supports implementation of multi-functional NBS, as synergies can be explored to identify nature-based solutions that can support the goals of different strategies. The fact that the plan was widely consulted with the public, local businesses and other representatives of civil society, means that the plan is locally appropriate and responds to the community's needs. The plan is constantly monitored and is set to be reviewed every 5 years to reflect latest policy, technology and climate -related impacts, making it sustainable and relevant in the long-term.

Sources and further information

References

List of references:

Dublin City Council (2022), Webstory: Dublin City Council Climate Action Plan 2019 - 2024, Available at: https://www.dublincity.ie/residential/environment/dublin-city-councils-climate-change-action-plan-2019-2024/dublin-city-council-climate-action-plan-2019-2024

Dublin City Council (2019), Dublin City Council Climate Action Plan 2019 - 2024, Available at: https://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/2020-07/2019-dcc-climate-change-action-plan.pdf

Dublin City Council (2022), Annual Progress Report 2020/21 Climate Change Action Plan 2019-2024, Available at: https://www.dublincity.ie/sites/default/files/2022-03/final-ccap-annual-progress-report-2021.pdf

Codema (2022), Dublin Climate Change Action Plans, Available at: https://dublinclimatechange.codema.ie/

Dublin City Council (2021), Annual Progress Report 2020 Climate Change Action Plan 2019-2024, Available at: https://dublinclimatechange.codema.ie/f/50477/x/eaad650202/dcc-ccap-annual-progress-update-report.pdf

Further documents

Documents:

2019-dcc-climate-change-action-plan.pdf

Weblinks:

https://dublinclimatechange.codema.ie/

Photos

@Ayuntamiento de Dublín