Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act (2021) requires local authorities to prepare a Local Authority Climate Action Plan (LACAP) to meet national emission reductions targets and develop resilience to the impacts of climate change.

These plans must be subject to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) given their scope and the nature of climate actions defined in the plans.

This project involved the carrying out SEAs and Natura Impact Reports for 25 Local Authority Climate Action Plans (LACAPs). FT were responsible for the following under this project:

• SEA Scoping.
• Integrating environmental considerations and mitigation measures into the plans.
• Reviewing, appraising and responding to SEA consultation submissions, and completing.
• Producing the SEA Environmental Reports and AA Screening Reports/Natura Impacts Reports for the plans.
• Producing SEA Statements and AA Conclusion Statements for the plans.

As a result of SEA and AA processes, FT integrated mitigation measures into the plans, including measures that served to maximize the co-benefits of climate action (i.e., win-win solutions). The following mitigation measures were defined:

• Several plan implementation Environmental Governance Principles were established to ensure plan implementation generates the minimum level of negative environmental effects and the maximum level of positive environmental effects.
• The plans were shaped to ensure environmental protection related obligations and environmental enhancement opportunities were appropriately integrated into defined climate actions.