Cork City Council Community Climate Action Programme 2021/2022
Cork City Council and Cork City Public Participation Network (PPN) have launched a new Community Climate Action Programme in which they are inviting communities in Cork City to engage with. An online public information event, to inform communities of the new programme, was held on Wednesday 8th September 2021.
The recording of the video is available to view below, and contains messages from the Lord Mayor of Cork City, Cllr. Colm Kelleher, Minister for the Environment, Climate & Communications, Eamon Ryan, Chief Executive of Cork City Council, Ms Ann Doherty, Chair of the Cork City Council Climate Action Committee, Cllr Oliver Moran, Representative of the Public Participation Network, Ms Orla Burke and Coordinator of the Cork Environmental Forum, Ms Bernie Connolly. The outline of the programme and an overview of the application process and criteria is towards the end of the recording.
In conjunction with Cork City PPN, the City Council has engaged Cork Environmental Forum to work with a number of communities across the city to draw up local Community Climate Action Plans. Cork City Council declared a Climate and Biodiversity emergency in 2019, recognising the critical need to address emissions and biodiversity loss. Acknowledging the key role all sectors need to play to address these challenges, this programme aims to help the city and its citizens deal with the current and future climate change and biodiversity crises.
The aim of the Community Climate Action Programme is to assist communities through a series of workshops to develop a 2-3 year Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan for their local area.
Minister for the Environment, Climate & Communications, Eamon Ryan, in welcoming this initiative by Cork City Council, said: “I commend Cork City Council for their leadership with this programme, as community buy-in and action is very necessary to bring the changes we need at a local level. The recent report by the IPCC is a stark reminder that we have limited time in which to act to prevent more devastating impacts from climate change. We will all need to work together to achieve this.”
Lord Mayor of Cork City, Cllr. Colm Kelleher said: ‘This new programme has community at the heart of it. As Cork City Council continues to roll out initiatives to combat the threat of climate change, improving the quality of life of our citizens and visitors to the city, the role of the community has never been so valued and important in tackling climate change. I am happy to be involved in this launch and look forward to working with local communities in the future to help tackle the effects of climate change in Cork”.