Minister O’Brien hosts 6th National Climate Stakeholder Forum in Cork
- Foilsithe:
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 9 Bealtaine 2025
Forum shares perspectives from community, business and local authority attendees
The 6th National Climate Stakeholder Forum takes place in Cork City today. The Forum, held in conjunction with Cork City and County Councils, showcases the activities in the Atlantic Seaboard South Climate Action Regional Office (CARO). The event brings stakeholders from across the region together to focus on the climate action taking place in the area through the EU Mission Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, Cork Environmental Forum, UCC MaREI Institute, and across communities.
This Forum serves as a conclusion to the Climate Actions Work (community empowerment) Programme, summarising what has been learnt from an extensive year of engagement with communities and also serves to lay the foundations for the next stage of the programme by exploring approaches to the co-creation of a ‘Community Hub Model’ for climate action.
The Forum will hear from the Cork Local Authorities and a number of Cork-based community groups, businesses and stakeholders leading climate actions and initiatives in this region. It aims to empower communities to involve more people in climate action and work collaboratively with each other to establish sustainable structures at the community level and better working relationships with local government. This includes a presentation from Cork City Council on the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission; perspectives on how businesses are supporting climate action in the area from Cork Chambers; energy, climate and marine research in the MaREI Centre, UCC; and case studies from organisations who have been supported through the Climate Actions Work community engagement fund, including Kilmurray Active Retirement Association and CESCA (Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance).
Speaking ahead of the event, Minister Darragh O’Brien said:
"This sixth National Climate Stakeholder Forum brings together a really driven group of community organisations, businesses and local government stakeholders to showcase effective approaches to community engagement on climate action here in Cork. Its hugely encouraging to see the diversity of activities underway here and get a real sense of a place-based approach to climate action. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing about Cork’s progress on the EU Mission for Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, looking at the specific challenges and strengths our cities represent in reaching net-zero. I look forward to fruitful discussions with all today’s stakeholders."
ENDS
Notes to the Editor
EU Missions Climate Neutral and Smart Cities
EU Missions are a new way to bring concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges. The EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission is one of 5 Missions across Europe. It aims to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. It also aims to ensure that these mission cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050.
In April 2022, Cork City and Dublin City were selected from over 300 applicants to participate in the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, while Galway City was successful in securing a €1 million grant as part of the EU Mission Pilot Cities programme. Cork and Dublin were among 39 European cities that were awarded their EU Mission label this week at the Cities Mission Conference in Vilnius. The label recognises their ambitious plans to reach climate neutrality by 2030 and is designed to help them unlock public and private funding to achieve this goal.
National Climate Stakeholder Forum
The National Climate Stakeholder Forum (NCSF) was established by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to function as a consultative forum on climate issues. The Forum generally meets twice a year bringing together a broad range of stakeholders including policy makers, community groups, industry and local government to focus on strengthening engagement on climate across all sectors of society.