3.3 - Challenges

Decarbonising the City and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Fossil fuels such as oil, coal, gas and peat have been the main drivers of development and economic growth since the industrial revolution.

Moving forward, the challenge is to decouple fossil fuels and economic growth, in order to reduce emissions while maintaining quality of life.

As Dublin City continues to grow, the need to sustainably manage water, land, transportation, energy, housing and waste disposal will increase. The challenge will be to reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions and to encourage the development of decentralised, alternative sources of energy.

Under the recently adopted Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act, Ireland is committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 (relative to a baseline of 2018) and Dublin City will have a key part to play in achieving this target. The Dublin City Climate Action Plan sets targets for the Council’s buildings, operations and social housing. These account for less than 4% of the total emissions in Dublin City, which highlights the need to work with stakeholders and tackle the remaining 96% of emissions produced citywide. Key challenges in this regard, include the need to improve the energy efficiency of existing building stock across the city and to reduce dependence on fossil fuel based transport.

Flooding and Flood Risk

A significant climate-related challenge facing the city is that rising sea levels and more frequent and severe rainfall events are contributing to increased flooding and flood risk which is, in turn, putting the city’s people, property and critical infrastructure at risk. To respond to this challenge, it will be necessary to adapt the response to flood risk management to address the impacts of climate change.

Adapting to Climate Change

Dublin City faces the threat of extreme weather events, sea level rise and pluvial and fluvial flooding which will impact on communities, infrastructure, heritage, and the environment. The rise in mean annual temperatures will also create new challenges for Dublin City in particular as the air, surface and soil temperatures in cities are almost always warmer than in rural areas (a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect). Extreme temperatures, hot and cold will also have adverse impacts on critical infrastructure, such as water supply, transportation and energy.

Dublin City must rise to the challenge of adapting and becoming more resilient to such events.

This will entail making physical changes to the city’s environment via nature based solutions (green walls, green roofs, green infrastructure) and hard engineering solutions (flood walls, barriers, early warning systems), but also by encouraging behaviour change, such as encouraging citizens to choose to use sustainable building materials, to cycle and walk more, to use less water and energy and to reduce the waste they produce.