New Climate Action fund available to Offaly community groups

At the launch of Offaly Co Co Community Climate Action Grants scheme were, Aisling Lambe, Cllr Eamon Dooley, Cathaoirleach Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick, CEO Anna Marie Delaney John McNally,Clare McEnroe,

placeholder image — At the launch of Offaly Co Co Community Climate Action Grants scheme were, Aisling Lambe, Cllr Eamon Dooley, Cathaoirleach Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick, CEO Anna Marie Delaney John McNally,Clare McEnroe,

A NEW Community Climate Action fund is being made available to community groups in Offaly who are interested in developing projects and initiatives which relate to the challenge of addressing climate change.

The announcement was made by Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, TD.

Chief Executive of Offaly County Council, Anna Marie Delaney confirmed “There are two funding streams available:

• Strand 1: Action: Building Low Carbon Communities: Offaly County Council has been allocated a

total of €444,000 under this strand to work in partnership with communities, small and large, rural,

and urban, within County Offaly 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 is available to support cross-border and all-island community climate action partnerships between community

organisations in the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

Cathaoirleach Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick added “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.

The funding is for investment in small, medium, and large-scale community climate action projects.”

Community groups are advised to take note of the 5 themes covered by the grant and applications

should address a minimum of one of these themes. Applications which include more than one

theme are recommended. These themes are Energy, Travel, Food and Waste, Shopping and

Recycling and Local climate and environmental action and any other innovative project that is

possible to replicate in other communities.

Ms Delaney further added “The Community Climate Action Programme will support the delivery of

the new five-year Climate Action Plan for County Offaly which is in development.

Community Climate Action Officer, Sinead McEvoy outlined “applications for the Community Climate Action Programme will be made through offaly.ie and the submission portal will open between December 13 2023 and closes on March 11 2024 at 5pm ”.

For more information on the Community Climate Action Programme, please visit

https://www.offaly.ie/climate-action/