In conversation at the event were, from left, Tom Moore, Women’s Community Projects, Mullingar, Cllr Hazel Smyth, Mullingar Sustainable Energy Community, David Jones, Westmeath County Council, and Paddy Mathews, Mullingar Sustainable Energy Community.

Council preparing climate action plan for Westmeath

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A five-year ‘Climate Action Plan’ for Westmeath Is currently being prepared by the staff of Westmeath County Council and is due to be completed by February of next year, attendees at the sustainability event hosted in Mullingar learned.

“Climate action is a global issue. It’s a national issue, but it’s also a local issue,” David Jones, director of services with the county council, said as he spoke of the council’s aims and set out the approach being taken in preparation of the new plan.

He said one of the reasons government had tasked local authorities with coming up with climate action plans was that they are the arm of government that’s closest to the citizen and therefore best placed to implement and facilitate change.

Mr Jones explained that as part of the advanced planning process, baseline data was currently being amassed, and a necessary part of that work was looking at adaptation measures as, he said, “climate change has already happened”.

“We are already impacted by climate change in terms of ‘severe weather events’, whether that be flooding, heat, drought, and so on and so forth.

“So that’s already has happened for us. And as a local authority we need to plan for that; we need to plan forward in terms of the risks associated with climate change, and the impact of severe weather events,” he stated, providing data that warned of an increase in the frequency and impact of flooding, but also a decrease in the frequency of cold spells and heavy snowfall, but an increased occurrence of heatwaves.

From the baseline emissions survey, it emerged that the three key sectors producing carbon were agriculture, transport and residential; and agriculture, at 40% of all emissions, is the most significant, with transport at 21% and residential at 16%.

Mr Jones said there will be a public consultation process around the plan contents, but in the meantime if anyone wished to make contributions or offer any views, they could do so by emailing climateactionplan@westmeathcoco.ie.

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