‘We need to make a real impact now so the next generation can actually have a sustainable life’ – Meet the people tackling climate change head on in Kildare
“My great great grandchildren ask me in dreams, what did you do when the planet was plundered?”
That poignant question features in the poem Hieroglyphic Stairway by Drew Dellinger. It also opens Kildare’s first Climate Action Plan.
According to Kildare County Council’s climate action co-ordinator, Paula O'Rourke, the council is taking its responsibility to future generations very seriously.
“We need to make a real impact now so the next generation can actually have a sustainable life,” Ms O’Rourke told the Irish Independent.
“We can’t just let it lie. We have to work earnestly at it, and we have to be ambitious. It is difficult, but it’s doable.”
How your county is weighing in on fighting climate change
Like councils up and down the country, by 2030, Kildare must cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 51pc and increase energy efficiency by 50pc. But, with two motorways cutting through the county and its proximity to the M50 making transport its biggest emitter, the council faces a huge challenge.
“It’s a big issue,” Ms O’Rourke said. “It comes back to behavioural change and money in people’s pockets.
“If you’re getting into your own car and it’s easy… you’ll do it’.”
According to the council’s action plan, human activity across Kildare added 1,678,583 tonnes of greenhouse gases to the world in 2018. That’s the equivalent of driving 12.3 billion kilometres in a petrol or diesel car, according to OpenCO2.net.
With the Government abandoning its policy to spend twice as much on public transport as it does on roads, it could be some time before the public and well-intentioned councils have viable alternatives to private cars.
The Department for Transport defended its decision, telling the Irish Independent: “This Government has committed to very significant investment in public transport.”
This includes “approximately €10bn for public transport infrastructure investment from 2026 to 2030, with a further €2bn from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund specifically to start construction on MetroLink”.
The reality is, if you could make it faster to travel by public transport ... you’d be more likely to do that than bring your car
When first unveiled in 2023, that fund was designated for climate and nature restoration projects not “already funded by the National Development Plan”.
While MetroLink is certainly needed, Senator Malcolm Noonan, who served as junior nature minister from 2020 until last year, has said that farmers and IFA representatives are “quite upset” that funding set aside to help them fight climate and nature loss has “disappeared” into the project.
Policies that would have made roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists – like reduced urban speed limits and cameras to catch ‘red light runners’ – have also disappeared.
But councils including Kildare’s are still working to encourage more people to use active travel.
“The reality is, if you could make it faster to travel by public transport, on your bike, walking, skating, then you’d be more likely to do that than bring your car,” Ms O’Rourke said.
She added that Kildare’s sustainable transport team is looking at where people go, how they get there and how the council can make active travel the best option even in the countryside, where she said “the big problem is”.
“It's the micro-transport elements, like electric bikes or shared taxi or car services,” she said. “It would make a massive difference on our roads.”
The reasons for this push couldn’t be more clear, as people across Kildare are already facing mounting climate risks.
According to the council's action plan, there was severe flooding in 2022 after extreme rains, heaping pressure on emergency departments, civil defence and the army.
In 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2015, flooding rivers damaged property, vehicles and infrastructure and, in 2002 and 2008, people had to be rescued from homes and stranded cars. Droughts were recorded in 2006, 2017, 2018 and 2020.
When Storm Ophelia hit in 2017, homes and businesses in Johnstown, Kill, Straffan, The Curragh and Milltown were left without power.
Kildare’s 30-year record of climate related hazards shows that the risks are rising. Five severe weather events were recorded between 1993 and 2003, and there were another five the following decade. Between 2013 to 2023, however, 15 severe weather events – including eight named storms – battered the county.
Even though these extremes affect people and public services, Ms O’Rourke said the council’s biggest challenge in encouraging climate action is that “people dislike change”.
Residential emissions are the second biggest problem for Kildare, accounting for 23.3pc of emissions in 2018. About 43pc of homes still use oil and 38pc use gas.
That’s why the council worked with Maynooth University to create a retrofit DemoHouse in Kildare’s decarbonising zone to highlight how going renewable benefits householders.
The refurbished semi-detached in Maynooth features triple-glazed windows, heavily insulated walls, low-heat radiators, a heat pump, solar panels, an EV charger and outside space designed to help reduce flooding and support nature.
Ms O’Rourke said: “We bring everything to do with climate action down to the household level ... how to retrofit your home, grant schemes, how you can use active travel and how long it would take to get to your everyday needs, like schooling, food, dentist, doctor, whatever.
“[The house] is actually after winning two prizes: the President’s Prize under the Entente Florale, which is a European-wide award scheme, [and] an award for energy and buildings under SEAI.”
The council is also working to retrofit its own buildings and use Maynooth as a “test bed for change” to highlight how climate-friendly changes at home and at business level positively impact communities.