Dublin City Council has set out how it plans to halve the capital’s emissions by 2030 by boosting public transport, active travel and making social housing and public buildings more energy-efficient.
Speaking at the launch of 'Climate Neutral Dublin 2030' the city’s Climate Action Plan for 2024-2029, Lord Mayor Daithí de Roiste said: "Climate change is without doubt the biggest risk that faces society today, through extreme weather, through flooding to rising sea levels and that's only some of the stuff that we know; the intensity and the frequency of these events over the coming decades.
"We're going to see a lot more about and what we launched today to this document is the beginning of a very ambitious journey."
Also speaking at the launch, Dublin City Council’s Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare said: "We need absolute system change and reorganisation. Our first plan was good.
"We did achieve some change, what we understood is that we needed to build bridges and join all the dots. Now we need to keep going and create as many opportunities as possible."
The plan also promises to refurbish social housing to make homes warmer and more energy efficient and to do the same for public buildings like the Civic Offices, the Mansion House and City Hall through a regeneration programme.
There will also be decarbonisation zones at Ballymun where there will be nature-based soltuons and Ringsend where there will be district heating using excess heat from the incinerator at Poolbeg.
Welcoming the plan, Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan said: "We’ve set ourselves a really ambitious goal as part of this network of European cities going neutral by 2030.
"It’s no small change, it’s massive leap. That’s a leap for the better."
The plan aims to increase the modal share for sustainable forms of transport such as walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport.
Mr Ryan said he was confident it will be achieved despite a fall in the modal share for cycling report by the Walking and Cycling Index 2023 for Dublin.
He said: "We still have to take the through traffic out of the city centre and I think when we do that we’ll see in Dublin the same explosion in numbers we’ve seen in Paris, we’re seeing in London.
"Dublin is a perfect city for cycling. Its flat distances aren’t that far. We have a culture of cycling. So I think once we create safe conditions it’s going to really grow."
