From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
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Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, has announced the 18 successful recipients of the new €5 million fund under Strand 2 of the Community Climate Action Programme.
The Community Climate Action Programme supports projects and initiatives that facilitate community climate action through education, capacity building and learning by doing. The programme is being run by Pobal, on behalf of the department. Minister Eamonn Ryan met with the successful projects at a launch event at the Ashling Hotel in Dublin.
Speaking about the projects, Minister Ryan said:
"There is a massive appetite to take action at individual and community levels. The Climate Conversations 2022, which my department undertook over the summer to get a sounding on where people are at, found that 83% of participants across Irish society are motivated to take action to address climate change.
"The range of projects represented in these awards is an indication of this appetite for initiatives that can help communities move towards a more sustainable future. I’m looking forward to seeing the lasting impact your projects will have in empowering communities to change behaviours and habits, and am confident the outcomes will inspire other groups who may wish to participate in further funding strands."
Anna Shakespeare, CEO of Pobal, said:
"Pobal is very pleased to be administering Strand 2 of the Community Climate Action Programme on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is very important that no community is left behind in response to the challenge of climate action and justice and we look forward to supporting the project promoters deliver successful projects that can inform future community approaches to climate action and justice."
18 projects from around the country were selected from 72 applications. These represent a diverse range of activities across the five programme themes (Home and Energy; Food and Waste; Shopping and Recycling; Transport; Local Climate and Environment).
A sample of the projects includes:
Work on all 18 community climate action projects will begin shortly. For more information about the projects please visit the Pobal website.
Strand 1 of the of the Community Climate Action Programme will begin taking applications towards the end of 2022 / early 2023. This strand of the programme will support communities, large and small, rural and urban, to build low carbon communities in a considered and structured way. Strand 1 requires the appointment of dedicated Climate Officers in Local Authorities to guide the transition for these low carbon communities before it can get underway. Further details will be available on the department's website and local authority websites in due course.
ENDS
The Community Climate Action Programme will see €60 million from the Climate Action Fund invested in community climate action projects and initiatives, as well as capacity building, over the next 3 years.
The Programme will support and empower communities to shape and build low carbon, sustainable communities in a coherent way. It will roll out in two phases with €30 million allocated for the first phase.
The first phase is comprised of 2 strands.
The projects will be funded with €5 million from the Climate Action Fund. The Climate Action Fund was established on a statutory basis in 2020 to provide support for projects, initiatives and research that contribute to the achievement of Ireland’s climate and energy targets, and for projects and initiatives in regions of the State, and within sectors of the economy, impacted by the transition to a low carbon economy. The fund is resourced mainly from proceeds from the levy paid to the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) in respect of relevant disposals of petroleum products, after the funding requirements of NORA have been met.
Further information on the Climate Action Fund is available on the department's website.
Details of the successful projects can be found below:
| Organisation | Project title | Description of the project to be funded |
| Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency CLG, trading as 3cea | Community Energy Hubs | To fund the development and delivery of online 'Community Energy Hubs' which will support community groups and individuals to turn their energy efficiency project ideas into reality. The project will develop practical learning tools to address the challenge of energy efficiency in homes and community buildings. This is a project in partnership with the Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford Library Services. |
| Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative Company Limited by Guarantee | Energy Saving Champions | To fund the development of an 'Energy Saving Champions' project which will encourage greater energy savings and energy efficiency among families, households and communities. Facilitators will be trained to provide guidance to people on how best to reduce their domestic energy consumption and measures they can take to improve their energy efficiency. A competitive element is built into the programme so that families, households, and communities can compete against each other. |
| FoodCloud | Food waste to sustainable food communities: a capacity-building programme | To fund a project to engage a network of partners and citizens to take further action to reduce food waste and increase food security in their communities through the redistribution of surplus food. The project will develop and deliver training and capacity building materials for food sharing communities that will include: online educational courses on food waste minimisation and food redistribution, case studies of best practice in food sharing; and develop a toolkit for communities to activate a zero food waste community. This is a project in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, representatives from FoodClouds CVO redistribution partners, Institute of Technology Sligo, and The Rediscovery Centre. |
| Gaelic Athletic Association | GAA Green Club Programme - Organisational Capacity Building Project | To fund the further development of the 'GAA Green Club Programme' which involves developing a Community Engagement Toolkit that will support clubs to implement sustainability and climate actions across 5 themes: energy, waste, water, biodiversity and transport. This will include ensuring actions identified are relevant to the membership, wider community and the physical/social environment, and will provide training to GAA County Planning and Training officers to support the coordination of this process. |
| Institute of Technology Sligo | Power to Change | To fund the development of the 'Power to Change' project, which in partnership with the Sligo Public Participation Network, will create a toolkit, repository of case studies, virtual learning prototype and establish a nature initiative and regional network. The project will facilitate connection/reconnection with nature and build capacity to motivate community groups to lead on change. |
| Leave No Trace Ireland | Beaches and Dunes for Climate Adaptation: Training for Communities | To fund the development of a 'Beaches and Dunes for Climate Adaptation: Training for Communities' which will build the capacity of local communities to adapt to, and mitigate against, climate change. The project will develop a toolkit and educational workshops which will build the knowledge and skills of communities to take positive action on how best utilise beaches and dunes as coastal protection. This is a project in partnership with the Atlantic Seaboard North Climate Action Regional Office; The Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim Education and Training Board; and the National University of Ireland, Galway. |
| National LGBT Federation Company Limited By Guarantee | HOMEWORKS | To fund the development of the 'HOMEWORKS: Bringing Climate Action Home' project which will, in partnership with Common Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Living, build the capacity and confidence of communities to take practical, climate-oriented action both in in their homes and in community facilities. The project will focus on developing skills related to home, energy, food and waste and will produce a toolkit with a set of hands-on community action and skills workshops. |
| National University of Ireland (Galway) | A Toolkit to Drive Co-creation and Climate Action | To fund the development of a 'Toolkit to drive co-creation and Climate Action.' This will include a range of tools, case studies and a sharing platform to support decarbonized communities tangibly reduce their carbon footprint by 2050. This project is in partnership with: a number of academics; five Decarbonising community groups, five environmental awareness officers and four volunteer Ireland branches, Energy Cooperatives Ireland and the Climate Action Regional office in Mayo. |
| National Women's Council of Ireland | Building a Feminist Community Work Approach to Climate Change | To fund the development of a capacity building programme and associated resources to support community development and women’s organisations to engage in climate policy and climate action from a feminist climate justice perspective with a particular focus on its impact on women and marginalised communities. This project will be developed in partnership with Community Work Ireland. |
| ROTHA | Pilot Initiative to deliver home energy upgrades community 'one stop shop' | To fund a pilot initiative to develop the supports required to establish an advisory service for householders, addressing their needs at the initial stages of their home energy upgrade journey. This advisory service will represent the pilot phase of developing a fully-fledged One-Stop-Shop and will be developed and delivered with the rural communities of West Cork. This project will be developed in partnership with The Ludgate Hub. |
| Sonairte the National Ecology Centre Company Limited By Guarantee | Climate Action and Local Food - supports for community hubs (CALF) | To fund the development and delivery of the 'Climate Action and Local Food' (CALF) project which will establish a peer-to peer experiential network of regional food hubs from different counties in Ireland. It will build the capacity of emerging and established food hubs using Open Food Ireland's user-owned platform to connect local farmers and producers with their local community, and develop a set of resources for community groups, cooperatives, social enterprises, small farmers, and others to establish local food communities. This is a project in partnership with Open Food Ireland and Cloughjordan Community Farm. |
| Space Engagers Company Limited by Guarantee | New Energy Communities | To fund the design and delivery a 'New Energy Communities' Framework – a working plan which can be supported and deployed at a number of different neighbourhood and community levels in order to facilitate capacity building towards the energy transition. It will develop strategies for place-based local home and environmental action to empower citizens to actively participate in processes of change, and support communities to find new, relevant, and effective ways of addressing challenges that matter to them. |
| Sustainable Ireland Cooperative Society Ltd | Climate Coaches for a Just Transition and Resilient Communities | To fund the development of the 'Climate Coaches for a Just Transition and Resilient Communities' project, which will create a Community of Practice to co-develop a tailored training programme and toolkit to catalyse, scale and accelerate climate action and a just transition through sustainable community-led local development. This is a project in partnership with the North & South Tipperary Development Company, and Tipperary and Waterford Public Participation Networks. |
| Sustainable Projects Ireland CLG | Creating Centres of Excellence for Community Climate Action | To fund the delivery of the 'Creating Centres of Excellence for Community Climate Action' project which will seek to develop and support Sustainable Education and Demonstration Centres as focal points for community climate action and sustainability. This will be done by sharing best practice experience, developing common guidelines from a collaborative process and, documenting that learning for others to follow, create a Good Practice Guide and Toolkit. This is a project in partnership with: Burren College of Art, Green Skibbereen and Sonairte. |
| The Bohemian Football Club Company Limited by Guarantee | The Spark - Capacity building for community-led climate action | To fund the development of ‘The Spark’ project which will create a tangible curriculum, activities and good practice engagement methods for a broad range of stakeholders to enable the creation of a self-sustaining climate cooperative to reduce local emissions and build local adaptive capacity. This is a project in partnership with the Bohemian Foundation, Connecting Cabra, Cosybatter, Football Association Ireland, Grangegorman Development Agency, Mountjoy Prison, Neighbourhood Network, Phibsborough Village Climate Club, Rothar, Stoneybatter Pride of Place and Technological University Dublin. |
| The Irish Local Development Network Company Limited by Guarantee | Community Led Home Retrofit Awareness Raising and Training | To fund a the development of a 'Community Led Home Retrofit Awareness Raising and Training' project which will develop a community retrofit service, training curriculum and tools which will support homeowners overcome barriers to accessing grant schemes. The service combines Knowledge Transfer and Technical Support with dedicated Retrofit Champions and will work with community structures such as Sustainable Energy Communities (SECs). This is a project in partnership with Cavan and Leitrim Local Development Companies; Institute of Technology Sligo; Monaghan Integrated Development; Plan Energy; and Sligo Leader Partnership. |
| The Rediscovery Centre Company Limited by Guarantee | Building Circular Economic Opportunities in Communities (BCEOC) | To fund the development of the 'Building Circular Economic Opportunities in Communities' (BCEOC) project which is a tailor-made training and mentoring programme which will build capacity within communities to develop new Circular Economy (CE) projects or enterprises. This is a project in partnership with the Longford Employment Development and Information Centre, Roscommon Women’s Network and Tait House Community Enterprise. |
| Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment | Circular approaches to community level food and waste management | To fund the development of a 'Circular Approaches to Community Level Food and Waste Management' project which will develop and pilot a toolkit for community level organisations to engage with food waste from farm to fork through consultative and action-based approaches. This is a project in partnership with Transition Kerry. |