Survey reveals fear and concerns over climate action plan

92pc of respondents to a Mayo County Council survey regarding the local authority’s climate action plan have said they are worried about climate change.

The findings of the pre-draft consultation survey were discussed at last week’s meeting of the Council’s Environment SPC. There were 517 community submissions, 43 from enterprises and 8 from stakeholders. Mayo County Council’s Climate Action Officer Laura Dixon said this response was excellent compared to what other local authorities have reported receiving in a similar survey, with many having as few as 20 responses.

90pc of respondents said they felt their community would benefit from training in relation to climate action while 22pc said their biggest concern with regards to climate action was the conditions for future generations.

The survey also revealed that the biggest barriers to reducing emissions in Mayo’s towns and villages are related to cost, a lack of knowledge and a lack of community resources.

“We really have a key role in building awareness of climate action,” said Ms Dixon.

Cllr Peter Flynn welcomed the strong number of submissions, particularly given the lack of responses in other counties to the same survey. However, he said he was doubtful that the survey was truly a gauge of widespread public opinion and was likely made up of climate activists.

Ms Dixon said that 51pc of respondents were not part of an environmental or climate group and many who responded did not care for climate change.

“Some respondents were climate deniers, others called us clowns and said we were involved in government tyranny,” said Ms Dixon.

Mayo County Council needs to ‘get back to basics’ with its explanations and discussions of climate action with the public, according to Cllr Donna Sheridan.

Cllr Sheridan made these comments in response to an overview of Mayo County Council’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at last week’s Environment and Climate Change SPC meeting.

Tom Lindsay from ACT told the meeting that SDGs are essentially a to-do list of all countries in terms of climate action. He said it was the best framework for decision making that Mayo County Council had.

Ms Dixon said Mayo Co Co was working on their SDGs and the Climate Action Plan, which is to be adopted by February 2024, will align itself with their SDGs.

Cllr Sheridan said she respected the level of thought that went into the SDGs but that the Council needs to be careful not to overcomplicate things.

“We need to go back to basics and tell people what we want them to do. I want to see something with simple steps that is easy to understand,” she said.

Ms Dixon said the Council was required by the United Nations to embed the SDGs into all its work but said it was important first to understand what these are.