The Chief Executive of Clare County Council has played down suggestions that funneling money into climate change projects could negatively impact on the local authority’s ability to fund other projects.
Pat Dowling is commenting in response to the first ever national report of local authority climate actions, which has been carried out by the Local Government Management Agency.
The report, which looked at actions between 2011 and 2018, found that less than half of councils use electric or hybrid vehicles for daily operations, just 12 have a tree management policy and only 14 measure water usage in their buildings.
Pat Dowling says Clare is initiating a number of projects around climate change, particularly in relation to flood protection works and housing, but not at the expense of other projects.
