The Elected Members passed a motion on climate change in September 2019. We are committed to becoming a carbon-neutral organisation and are also working with partners to reduce our borough’s net carbon emissions.
As a Council, we have ensured that our activities are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and we have measured and reduced our carbon footprint every year since our formation in 2015. We are proud to hold the highest environmental performance for a Council in the 2022 NI Environmental Benchmarking Survey.
We continue to protect our biodiversity to help to reduce the impacts of climate change and involve our local communities, to work together to shape our borough and create a better future for all.
How we make decisions
The Climate Change Working Group of Elected Members was established at Council's Annual General Meeting on the 6 June 2022.
DUP
UUP
Alliance
Independents (TUV did not take up their seats but nominated the two Independents)
Sinn Féin
A representative from Council’s Climate Working Group attends the quarterly NI All-Party Working Group hosted by Sustainable NI and the Green Party, in order to share good practice.
Making changes like the food you eat and the way that you travel could reduce your carbon footprint. These 16 Steps on the 'Count us in' website have been selected with experts from the UN Environment Programme based on three criteria:
If you need to get in touch E: climate@midandeastantrim.gov.uk
For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits – called COPs – which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’.
In that time, climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority.
This year’s summit was the 26th annual summit – ‘COP26’ with the UK as President, and took place in Glasgow.
In the run up to COP26 the UK continued to work with every nation to reach agreement on how to tackle climate change. World leaders arrived in Scotland, alongside tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for twelve days of talks.
What did we do locally to support COP26?
COP26 Regional Climate Roadshow Event
We worked in partnership with Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council to deliver a COP26 Regional Climate Roadshow event on Monday 8 November 2021.
We invited guest speakers from Met Office, Climate NI, Rivers Agency, GenComm, Energia, Natural World Products, Bryson Recycling, MyNI, Mayors and Council officers.
The event covered four main themes:
1. Understanding Climate Change
2. Reimagining Energy and Fuel – a Local Perspective
3. What Councils are Doing to Address Climate Change
4. Supporting and Leading Behavioural Change
The event was a great success and was recorded below so that you can view it at a time that suits you.
Mid and East Antrim Climate Adaption Video
At the COP26 Regional Climate Roadshow event, the Mayor also launched our new Climate Adaption video below.
The video highlights the impact extreme weather is already having on Council operations and communities and how we can be better prepared for this in the future.
Wrightbus and Kilroot Energy Park being part of the Zero Carbon Bus Tour
We are working with Planet Mark and the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) to deliver the Northern Ireland leg of the National Zero-Carbon bus tour, promoting COP26 messaging and gathering case studies for international promotion via the carboncopy.eco website. The bus will arrive in Glasgow for the start of COP26.
Council’s Climate Change Case Studies
During COP26, we showcased a number of programmes, projects, operational changes and community engagement initiatives to demonstrate our commitment to reducing our carbon emissions and to ensure our residents are prepared for future climate-related events.
Read our COP26 Case Studies & Watch Video
Council has contributed its MEA4Trees campaign toward a regional video prepared by the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) - to be showcased at COP26. The MEA4Trees campaign was launched during Tree Week in 2019 and involves Council working with partner organisations and the community to plant 58,000 native trees over 5 years - this is one for each household in the Borough. Council have already planted over 45,000 trees in the first 2 years of delivering the project and are working with the Woodland Trust to ensure these are quality native stock.
The Regional Community Resilience Group (RCRG) was formed in 2013 to help local communities prepare for and respond to weather related emergencies.
The group brings together Multi-Agency Partner Organisations from government, utilities and the voluntary sector to work for and with Communities at Risk of Severe Weather.
This video showcases the work of the Regional Community Resilience Group who bring together many agencies and people to deal with the impact of climate change in local areas.
On behalf of the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration secretariat Nourish Scotland recently presented the below certificate of signatory status for Mid and East Antrim.
It is accompanied by their thanks for Mid and East Antrim’s work integrating food systems policy to address the climate crisis.
Nourish Scotland look forward to engaging with us in the new year about the path forward from COP26 for both the Glasgow Declaration and its signatories.