SERVICES
Monaghan County Council is delighted to announce the opening of a new community climate action fund which is being made available to community groups interested in developing projects and initiatives which relate to the challenge of addressing climate change. The programme is funded by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications.
The overall objective of the Community Climate Action Programme is to support and empower communities to shape and build low carbon, sustainable communities in a coherent way to contribute to national climate and energy targets. The programme aims to support small and large, rural and urban communities to take climate action. This programme will help communities to both promote and assist in the scale up of community climate action from the respective starting points of the communities. The funding is for investment in small, medium, and large-scale community climate action projects.
There are two funding streams available:
- Strand 1: Action: Building Low Carbon Communities:
Monaghan has been allocated a total of €392,000 under this strand to work in partnership with communities, small and large, rural and urban, within County Monaghan to build low carbon communities in a considered and structured way.
- Strand 1a: Shared Island Community Climate Action:
In addition, a total of €3 million nationally is available to support cross-border and all-island community climate action partnerships between community organisations in County Monaghan and in Northern Ireland.
There are five themes that apply to projects. Community groups must carry out projects that fall under at least one theme but are encouraged to address as many of the five themes as possible.
The themes are:
- Energy
- Travel
- Food and waste
- Shopping and recycling
- Local climate and environmental action.
The Community Climate Action Programme will support the delivery of the new five-year Climate Action Plan for County Monaghan, which is due to be adopted in February 2024. The plan aims to position County Monaghan as a national leader in climate action and strengthen the delivery of effective climate action at local and community levels, through place-based climate action.
The application process for the Community Climate Action Programme will be made available through the Monaghan County Council website from 9:00 am on the 13th of December.
Ahead of the launch of the Community Climate Action Programme, Cllr David Maxwell, Cathaoirleach of Monaghan County Council, said, “It is great to see application for the Community Climate Action Programme open. This programme places community leadership at the heart of local climate and environmental action. The programme will enable local community groups, supported by Monaghan County Council, to play a key role in helping Ireland to achieve its national target to become a climate neutral economy and resilient society by 2050.”
Chief Executive of Monaghan County Council, Robert Burns said, “The Community Climate Action Programme will aid community activation and will empower community groups to develop projects that will lead to real and meaningful climate action. We are looking forward to working alongside local communities in County Monaghan to drive the change needed to address climate adaptation and mitigation.”
For more information on the Community Climate Action Programme visit https://monaghan.ie/environment/community-climate-action-programme2/ or scan QR code below:
or, contact the Community Climate Action Officer on climateaction@monaghancoco.ie.
