Milestone 5: Monitoring & Iteration

Monitoring and verifying progress on the implementation of actions to reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions is an ongoing process. Monitoring begins once actions are implemented and continues for their lifetime, providing important feedback that can be useful to improve roll out over time. In order to guarantee the success of this Climate Change Action Plan, the Climate Team within Dublin City Council (working in close association with the CARO) will report directly to the Environment Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), and to the Chief Executive’s Office, through the Assistant Chief Executive for Environment and Transportation. This will help to track regular progress and updating of this Climate Change Action Plan. This reflects best practice of cities globally, which have acknowledged that progress on climate change adaptation and mitigation calls for cross-departmental action and coordination with all stakeholders.

A critical challenge in the implementation and monitoring of this plan is data. While staff are able to identify and discuss the vulnerabilities stemming from climate change and the actions to address them, the need for localised, reliable and valid data was emphasised for developing action indicators. Presently, the DLAs are reliant on various central government departments (not just the Central Statistics Office) for data on air quality (EPA), transportation (NTA), energy (SEAI) and flood risk (OPW). This challenge of accessibility and availability of localised data impacts on policy decisions, and the ability of the DLAs to monitor their progress on climate change actions. The Dublin City Council Energy Review (2019 and going forward) will include a glidepath illustrating the energy efficiency and GHG emission targets for the City Council up to and including 2030. Appendix II: Total Emissions in Dublin City will also be updated every two years in accordance with the EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy protocol.

Overall, this Climate Change Action Plan will be monitored and updated on an annual basis, with a review and revision every five years. This Climate Change Action Plan was developed through the Environment SPC of Dublin City Council and approved by the full City Council. The Assistant Chief Executive for Environment and Transportation will report on progress to the SPC annually and the SPC will monitor progress towards the set targets. Every five years there will be a full review and revision of the plan, taking into account demographic, technical and other changes that have occurred and any new targets that have been introduced.

Monitoring at local authority level is in line with current best practice such as the EU Covenant of Mayor’s approach. Each CCAP will be submitted to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and will be consistent with, and have regard to, the Oireachtas ‘Climate Change: a cross-party consensus on climate action’ report (March 2019). Under current obligations, monitoring is adequately addressed in the CCAP and SEA. This may be changed in light of the Final Eastern Midland and Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy and the recently published Climate Action Plan 2019 To Tackle Climate Breakdown.

Key Performance Indicators:

The Dublin Metropolitan CARO agrees relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with the national Local Authority Climate Change Steering Group which, in turn, monitors the performance of the CARO against those agreed KPIs. This Steering Group additionally links in with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Office of Public Works (OPW), Met Éireann and the national Climate Change Advisory Council. This facilitates engagement with the different government departments and helps to align the local authority KPIs with the national and EU climate policy objectives.

Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy:

Dublin City Council, along with over 7,000 cities and regions in 57 countries, is a signatory to the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, which is the world’s largest movement for local climate and energy actions. The signatory cities pledge action to support implementation of the EU 40% greenhouse gas reduction target by 2030 and the adoption of a joint approach to tackling mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Accordingly, DCC commits to submit a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), outlining the key actions they plan to undertake, and this must be submitted within two years of signing up to the initiative.The plan will feature a Baseline Emission Inventory to track mitigation actions and a Climate Risks and Vulnerability Assessment. This commitment marks the beginning of a long-term process, with cities committed to reporting every two years on the implementation progress of their plans.