Government has allocated no dedicated funding to decarbonising zones since their introduction

"Under the government's Climate Action Plan 2019, councils were mandated to select an area of their county where methods to reduce carbon emissions are trialled, known as a Decarbonising Zone. These include energy efficiency, biodiversity and other low-carbon initiatives which, if successful, could be rolled out on a wider scale. Designated zones include the Aran Islands in Galway, the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry, and Ballymun and Ringsend/Poolbeg in Dublin."

"The Department of Environment points to existing government funding streams and EU grants to progress measures in DZs, but these pots of money are not dedicated to the initiative, so they merely spread existing funds thinner. "They're making the argument that the money's out there, but that's money that they would have been able to access without having a DZ. It's not giving a priority to the area," Ms Dekker said. "The DZs are a nice idea on paper, but they do need funding.""

"However, Dublin's Regional Climate Action Coordinator, Sabrina Dekker, said measures within DZs are progressing at a glacial pace due to the lack of dedicated funding. "There is no money is the thing," she said. "There's no funding committed by government to help us deliver. The ambition of the DZs is kind of stuck, because there's no money." She said if the government wants to see delivery of climate objectives through local authorities, they need to provide specific funding and heavily involve communities in the decision-making process around how it is spent. "It's in the government's national Climate Action Plan, so it is a government ask of the local authority," she said, noting that more work should come with more money."

Decarbonising Zones (DZs) were mandated under the 2019 Climate Action Plan for councils to trial methods to reduce carbon emissions in selected areas. Approaches include energy efficiency, biodiversity and other low-carbon initiatives that could be scaled if successful. Designated DZs include the Aran Islands, the Dingle Peninsula, Ballymun and Ringsend/Poolbeg. Progress within DZs is extremely slow because there is no dedicated government funding. Existing government funding streams and EU grants are available but are not dedicated to DZs and only dilute existing pots of money. Local authorities continue to lobby for specific funding and call for strong community involvement in spending decisions.

Read at Irish Independent