COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, October 13, 2008
MOTION NO. 2
MOTION: Councillor M. Corr
Mayor's Business
That this Council endorses the 10 pilot actions arising from the Roma per Kyoto Conference held in Rome on 18th September 2008 and in doing so, notes the valuable role played by the Institute of Technology, Tallaght in supporting this process as a partner in an EU Life Program funded project. In addition this council invites Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to support this resolution and calls on the Minister for the Environment to ensure actions to protect taxpayers in this country from any additional excessive financial burdens due to non-compliance with the Kyoto protocol.
REPORT:
The primary purpose of this conference is to facilitate dissemination of the results of the pilot projects which were established as part of the Roma per Kyoto Project. This project is funded under the EU Life Programme. LIFE is the EU's financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conseration projects throughout the EU. One of the aims of this particular project was to produce a city plan for the City of Rome to achieve the goals of the Kyoto protocol which would in turn create a demonstration project which could be transferred to other cities. The specific aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level 6.5% below the 1990 levels by the 2012. A number of pilot actions / projects were undertaken by the partners in Rome to evaluate their effectiveness in the reduction of greenhouse gam emissions. The IT Tallaght within the Roma per Kyoto project has been to develop a protocol for the evaluation of the pilot actions undertaken in the city of Rome.
The IT Tallaght is regarded as an learning resource for industry and business. As a national provider of third level higher education courses in Engineering, Business, Science and Humanaties it also provides a range of external services including applied research, business, technology consultancy and expert services and is involved in a number of Irish Government funded research projects. The IT has an established history, of participation with partners from Rome in a number of EU funded projects such as LIFE, Erasmus, Socrates, Youthstart, Adapt, NOW, Copernicus, Euroform, URBAN and Leonardo da Vinci. In this instances their work was particularly valuable in that it forms the basis of a cost beneift analysis on each respective pilot action. This means that the pilot actions carried out can be evaluationed on a basis of euros for every tonne of CO2 removed and should enable the most effective plan to address green house gas. A further role of the IT was to compile a list of interventions that could result in a reduction of GHG emisions.
The 10 points agreed at the conference are set out below:-
1. The cities agree that climate change is one of the most important topics in their common agenda.
2. To this end, the cities agree to create specific offices or agencies to work on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
3. The cities agree to develop concrete actions to mitigate climate change, clearly defining the target of reduction, the timing to achieve the results and the strategies of implementation.
4. The cities agree that the strategies of mitigation mainly include:
-An integrated approach to the town planning, mobility, land use and environmental protection policies;
-Sustainable mobility (traffic reduction, Public Transport development, use of low emission fuels and vehicles).
-Reduction of Energy consumption.
-Sustainable building Methods, Techniques and Materials.
-Building retrofit.
-Develop the use and production of renewable energy.
-Good practices and sustainable lifestyles.
-Soil management to avoid floods and droughts:
-Waste management and implementation of the 3R Strategy.
-CO2 absorption by green sinks and land use.
-The development of environmental information and education.
5. The cities ask their Central Governments to recognise that these actions area clear and well defined contribution for the Member states to achieve the target of reduction at National level.
6. The cities share teh EU target of the so-called strategy "+20 +20 -20" for 2020.
7. The cities recognise that the EU initiative "Covenant of Mayors" is an important tool to support the efforts of the EU cities to fight the climate change.
8. The cities aske the European Commission not to consider the investment into climate change mitigation adn adaptation in the framework of the Stability Pact.
9. The cities ask the European Commission and their Central Governments to define the strategies and the policies at economic level to support the Local Administrations to implement the actions of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
10. The cities ask the United Nations to make reference to the role of Local Administrations in the next so-called Copenhagen Protocol, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol.
South Dublin is engaged in the production of a Climate Change Strategy for the County. Codema, the Energy Agency for the Dublin Region, is assisting in the production of this Strategy. The themes are Energy; Planning; Transport; Waste Management and Bio Diversity. The actions to be contained within it will have strong verifable indicators and achieveable goals. This will build on and include the work in which the Council is already involved such as the planning process for Adamstown where the process ensured the lowest possible CO2 emissions and the reaching of the waste recycling targets of 59% for the Dublin Region. The Council itself is also producing a Sustainable Energy Strategy, in advance of the Climate Change Strategy.
The actions set out will support the Climate Change Strategy and will be incorporated into the final document. The Strategy will go through a period of public consultation enabling feedback from other individuals and agencies prior to being presented to the Council in March 2009.
If this motion is passed the Council will write to the other Dublin Authorities inviting their support and will also write to the Minister conveying the sentiments of the motion