Food for thought: Galway is tackling climate change through sustainability plans for growing and farming
Local authorities across Ireland are stepping up their response to the accelerating climate crisis with the rollout of five-year Climate Action Plans, mandated under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2021. Galway’s city and county councils are among those now turning these plans into practice – but both acknowledge the scale of the task ahead.
“Achieving the targets will be challenging and will require fundamental changes in many parts of Irish life,” Galway County Council warns in its action plan, which places climate considerations at the heart of all future policy.
Of the six strategic goals outlined in the county council’s plan, food security stands out as a key priority – one that links environmental resilience with economic and cultural identity.
A review of the city and county council’s action plans shows a strong focus on building more climate-ready food systems through decarbonisation, education and support for sustainable agriculture.
Galway’s unique geography heightens the stakes. With almost 2,000km of coastline, and encompassing everything from the mountains of Connemara to the limestone plains of the Burren and the fertile eastern farmlands, the county is exposed to rising seas, extreme weather and shifting growing seasons.
And, with roughly three-quarters of the county’s population living in rural areas, agricultural adaptation is not a theoretical exercise but an economic necessity.
Galway City Council’s climate action officer, Lyndsey O’Leary, and community officer, Tiarnan McCusker, said the action plans for both local authorities are still in their early phases. While progress is being made, much of the real work is only beginning.
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Viewed broadly, they see “fairly large strides” towards climate goals being taken, but, when looking at the fine print, it can feel like baby steps. One of the biggest obstacles within the city? Space.
“Land and land use are the biggest challenges we’re hearing from community groups,” Mr McCusker said.
The city and county plans weave the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their climate strategies, emphasising benefits for public health, economic resilience and community wellbeing.
Education plays a central role. The city council aims to partner with community groups, businesses and educators to promote local food production and cut food waste. The action plan calls for annual community-engagement projects, workshops and grassroots partnerships to track progress.
Another measure promotes “local and lower-carbon food production” through community gardens, food-sharing programmes and feasibility studies for public composting. These efforts align with one of the action plan’s core decarbonisations aims: cutting emissions tied to food consumption and waste.
Mr McCusker said that, at a recent ‘GibGab’ event showcasing rapid-fire sustainability pitches, one local proposal grabbed attention: the Hotbeds of Shantalla.
The concept – using horse manure to warm garden planters – could extend the growing season for root vegetables and other crops. More importantly, it reflects the kind of circular-economy thinking the action plan wants to encourage.
“There’s a lot of horse-riding schools and farms around the city,” Mr McCusker said. “If we can create a nexus between growers, farms and stables, using a sustainable product for winter growing, that would be amazing.
“It’s low-tech. It’s not hydroponics, but it’s innovative.”
The county council’s action plan reinforces this approach, pledging to “support food security and sustainable local food production” while helping farmers transition to low-carbon systems. The council is working with the BIA Innovator Campus to develop new solutions for the agrifood sector.
Agriculture remains deeply tied to emissions in Galway, particularly in livestock. The action plans highlight the need to track emissions across the entire agricultural lifecycle, from cattle rearing to local retail.
Composting, soil health and reducing reliance on synthetic fertiliser are flagged as key areas for improvement, supported by expanded allotments and public compost facilities.
Galway is famously choked with traffic. And the city is having the same debate around more roads versus more public transport that all of Ireland’s urban areas are having.
Supporters say a long-delayed bypass that would connect Barna to the M6, bypassing the city, will alleviate the city’s traffic woes, while opponents say such roads only attract more cars, and radical investment public transport is needed instead.
The bypass, set to cost anywhere between €600m and €1bn, looks likely to go ahead under the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government, and Galway city and county councils strongly support the project.
Both councils’ action plans found that people cited a lack of reliable public transport and safe walking and cycling routes as a factor in continuing to commute by car.
Both plans commit to developing better public transport links to get people out of their cars, but there is notably no mention in either document of the bypass project and what its potential impact might be.
Both councils have designated decarbonisation zones – pilot areas for low-carbon development.
In the city, the zone encompasses parts of Newcastle, Rahoon, Shantalla and Westside.
The county council chose the Aran Islands, where agriculture accounts for 35pc of emissions (lower than the county average of 44pc).
These zones will act as testbeds for new sustainability initiatives, including those centred on food systems.
“That's kind of our role – to bring all the different groups around the city to share ideas; to be that kind of conduit for change within the city,” Mr McCusker said. “If we can explore different innovative solutions like Hotbeds of Shantalla and promoting it, that would be a serious positive for the city.”
Agriculture remains central to Galway’s economic fabric. In 2022, more than 4pc of the county’s workforce was employed in agriculture, forestry or fishing. The region also contributes 18pc of Ireland’s agricultural entrepreneurial income, the second-highest share nationally.
Research at the University of Galway, in partnership with Teagasc, is exploring cutting-edge ways to reduce emissions from livestock. One promising development involves slurry additives that slow the release of harmful gases from animal waste, with potential applications in cattle feeding.
As Vincent O’Flaherty, a professor at the university, put it: “The paradox is that agriculture significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, but we will need to increase agricultural outputs by 50pc to feed a growing population. The more food we produce, the more waste we generate.”
That paradox forms the backdrop to Galway’s Climate Action Plans, which aim to balance climate action with the essential need for food.
While these strategies are still in their early stages, they offer a roadmap built on scientific research, community innovation and local knowledge, and a vision of a region determined to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing climate.