COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 10, 2018

QUESTION NO 18

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive to update the Council on actions being taken to meet targets set by Government in respect of Climate Change; will he outline his views in respect of this serious matter and will he make a statement.

REPLY:

The Draft Climate Change Action Plan is expected to be formally published in early 2019 for consultation and will involve a programme of stakeholder engagement and participation at both regional and local level. 

The current schedule for the plan is as follows:

On 19th January 2018 the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten T.D., published Ireland’s first statutory National Adaptation Framework and announced funding of €10m to establish Local Authority Climate Action Regional Offices (CARO). There will be four regional offices, one in Dublin for the four Dublin Authorities, one in Kildare for the midlands region, and Mayo and Cork for the Atlantic Region North and South respectively. The Dublin Metropolitan Climate Action Regional Office has completed some of the recruitment process; the Senior Engineer (or analogous) competition has been completed. The interviews for the Grade 6 Administration position has also taken place.

Work on the SDCC Draft Climate Action Plan continues in parallel to the establishment of the Climate Action Regional Office.

Work on Adaptation Actions continues across SDCC, including large scale flood alleviation schemes on the Poddle and Whitechurch stream, routine maintenance to the screens and pre-racks and our annual stream cleaning to remove excessive growth from the rivers and streams. SDCC also continues to prepare for severe weather events as we saw last year with the Severe Weather Assessment Team meeting as required. We have also drafted our Rest Centre Plan, Flood Plan and Severe Weather Plan.

Climate Change targets are divided between the energy-savings required of Public Bodies such as local authorities which are required to show a 33% saving of their own energy-usage from their chosen baseline year and the overall environmental performance of the County . SDCC is a member of the EU Covenant of Mayors group of European municipalities dedicated to achieving these targets SDCC has a Sustainable Energy Action Plan produced in conjunction with this grouping since 2013 as its roadmap to pursuing best practice in energy issues.

The Council has upgraded almost all of the 5,000 homes in stock which did not meet energy and comfort standards with a small number still to complete by 2020. Council buildings generally are to a high environmental standard with new buildings progressing to site now set to achieve Near-Zero (NZEB). Likewise SDCC has pursued renewable energy sources in its facilities including CHP, Bio-mass boilers, Solar PV ( including a 50 Kw array on County Hall) , Hot-water solar, and has research programmes under the Tallaght Smart-energy Test-bed. The Council is currently preparing a district-heating pilot project.

Public-lighting is the largest energy user in South Dublin County Council accounting annually for 48% of primary energy use. Of 28,000 existing lamps 7, 528 have been converted to energy-saving LED with 20, 300 remaining in use employing Sox and Son technology. A commitment to replacing an additional 4,000 Sox lights would have a significant impact on the Councils energy use.

Leisure centres at Tallaght and Clondalkin are the second largest energy users in the SDCC portfolio accounting for 13% of the primary energy used annually. Judicious management has reduced energy usage in both centres by 21% since the baseline year. The use of Energy=performance contract by Dublin City Council has delivered energy-reductions of 38% across three leisure centres. SDCC will deliver a similar contract through CODEMA commencing procurement process in October 2018.

Civic offices in Clondalkin and County Hall in Tallaght come next in energy-usage accounting for 11% of annual figures. Overall initiatives have reduced energy-usage in both offices by 10% since baseline year. Electrical load can be reduced by substitution of LED lights for existing fluorescent as already trialled successfully in new office layouts and the canteen. The Heatnet Inter-Reg project if realisable will create Irelands first public district heating scheme reducing gas usage in County Hall by 1 GW annually saving 1736 tonnes of CO2.

Transport accounts for 9% of average annual energy-usage by SDCC – 4.6 GW. A transport energy-management plan will focus on initial replacement of 38 large vehicles and onwards in a three-year programme to replace the fleet with energy-efficient vehicles saving 5%. This may include electrification of elements of the fleet and 5 vehicles were purchased in 2018 as a pilot initiative.

Overall, although SDCC has achieved energy savings across itself of 25.4% since baseline year a further 7.6% is required to meet the 2020 target of 33% - the shortfall is 5.5 GWH annually and will require energy-saving initiatives of a more radical and comprehensive nature and ongoing investment to achieve this target.