National Climate Stakeholder Forum (NCSF)

The National Climate Stakeholder Forum (NCSF) was established by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to function as a consultative forum on climate issues. The NCSF will meet twice each year, with administrative support being provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Fifth National Climate Stakeholder Forum took place on Wednesday, 28 February in the Convention Centre Dublin. Following outputs from the previous forums, the National Youth Assembly on Climate, as well as the 2023 Climate Conversations, the event brought together nearly 200 stakeholders and policy makers to focus on engagement on climate action throughout the country.

During the day attendees heard updates on the work of the six climate action taskforces (Land Use Review, Sustainable Mobility, Just Transition, Heat and Built Environment, Offshore Wind and Accelerating Renewable Energy and Climate Communications and Engagement), as well as presentations highlighting best practice engagement on climate action from groups across Ireland.

This Forum saw over 200 stakeholders inputting into climate policy. These insights will be presented through a webinar and short report launched after the event. The outcome will be a draft engagement plan co-created with a broad range of sectoral actors.

The Fourth National Climate Stakeholder Forum took place on 6 November 2023 at the Convention Centre Dublin. Nearly 200 policy makers attended with the focus of the day being how engagement on climate action could be enhanced across the country. Throughout the day presentations were given by groups currently exemplifying best practice in climate engagement. These included the GAA Green Clubs Programme, ECO-UNESCO, Creative Ireland, Clare PPN, The Dingle Peninsula, the Midlands Climate Action Regional Office, TASC and the Rediscovery Centre.

Two workshops of the Climate Action Taskforces were held where each taskforce was asked to reflect on how engagement could be better implemented following learnings from the presentations.

The output of this Forum was used to shape the development of a Year of Engagement on community climate action. A more detailed summary of the Forum will be available in the full 2023 National Dialogue on Climate Action which is due to be published shortly.

The third National Climate Stakeholder Forum (NCSF) took place on 10 May 2023 in the Aviva Stadium. The NCSF is as a central pillar of our NDCA and took the form of a one-day workshop that brought together policy makers to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to carbon neutrality. There were six parallel breakout sessions focusing on the following six delivery taskforces:

1. Citizen Engagement and Climate Literacy

2. Heat and Built Environment

3. Land-use Review

4. Just Transition Theme

5. Sustainable Mobility Policy Leadership Group

6. Offshore and Onshore Renewable

The report below is a summary of the outputs of these six taskforce workshops. It incorporates the work of stakeholders across fifteen different priority actions across these six taskforces. Six action pathways synopsise the key findings from each taskforce group. The findings of the forum will

be incorporated into the remaining elements of the NDCA including the online consultation and workshops with citizens.

The second NCSF, a one-day workshop, brought together stakeholders and policy makers to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to carbon neutrality in a fair and equitable manner.

The output from the day will inform a report identifying opportunities and setting out key recommendations to support the implementation of the Climate Action Plan.

Minister Eamon Ryan attended on the day which included a series of parallel breakout sessions focusing on the following six Delivery Taskforces:

1. Citizen Engagement, Climate Literacy & Communications

2. Offshore Renewables

3. Sustainable Mobility

4. Heat and Build Environment Delivery

5. Land Use Strategy

6. Just Transition

Participants discussed their recommendations for consideration by a panel comprised of Assistant Secretaries with responsibility for these areas in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Department of Transport.

The first forum was held on 22 March 2022, chaired by Professor Alan Barrett, Director of the ESRI. It was a one-day deliberative workshop with over 120 delegates in attendance representing policy makers, organisations and NGO’s, a list of attendants is available below. The focus was on realising opportunities presented by the transition to carbon neutrality in a fair and equitable manner.

Four priority areas were discussed:

1. Offshore renewables

2. Retrofitting

3. Sustainable Mobility: including active transport and modal shift

4. Engagement, Communications and Climate Literacy

Recommendations from the forum will go forward to inform the Climate Action Plan 2022 and sectoral policies