Lecale Conservation Youth is our association’s youth group. As a group of about 20 12-18 year olds, we’re passionate about the environment in our local area and the need for those in positions of authority to use the powers they currently have to tackle Climate Change, starting in our local area.

Every summer for the last 3 years Lecale Conservation have hosted a 10-day Climate Change Camp to empower young people with renewable energy technical knowledge and the internet and social media skills to put pressure on local authorities in NI to commit to meeting global net-zero targets.

This was triggered by the realisation that our local authority was the worst in Northern Ireland by any measure. We measured the performance of our Council against all the other Councils in Ireland North and South.  See our data here on the performance of the 11 Councils in Northern Ireland.

We have also analysed this for how it delivers jobs around NI and project a total future rates income of £200 million per annum spread across the 11 Councils. This implies that each Council should be targeting an average of ~£20 million each from rates. All Councils in NI appear oblivious to the opportunites for jobs, rates and economic development arising from the energy transition in their Districts.

We successfully picketed two of our local council meetings in 2021/22, and We have appeared on national television twice, on BBC News, and UTV View From Stormont, as well as all our local papers.

We canvassed Council Chairperson Cathy Mason, and chair of the Finance Committee, Oonagh Hanlon and persuaded them to have  Council to pass meaningful targets for rates income from renewable energy projects and the provision of electric vehicle infrastructure.  Motion passed by council on 1. Rates from renewable energy and 2. EV Charging Points.

How good is your council on Climate Change?

Click on the map to see the climate credentials of all the councils in Ireland. We have them ranked by:

• Rates income from renewable energy projects in their areas
• Rates income from fossil fuel electrical energy plants in their areas
• Income from Councils own renewable energy systems
• Savings from the electrification of Councils transport fleet
• Cumulative annualised savings from energy savings campaigns
• Does the Council have targets for public EV charging points in their area?
• Can their local grid support industry and households moving to cheaper  decentralised energy production and consumption models?
• Have they ensured that the grid in their area has the capacity to support the Irish or UK Governments’ targets for both the electrification of transport and the replacement of oil and gas for space heating by heat pumps, IR radiators and other electrical heating options?
• Have they declared a climate emergency?
• Does their Area Development plan have a joined-up plan for tackling Climate Change? Including each of the above points.