Individual choices, bigger levers and the food system around us
Climate action can feel both urgent and strangely paralysing. The problem is enormous, while the difference we can make ourselves can seem very small. So where is it actually worth putting our effort?
That is one of the questions behind our monthly Skerries Climate Conversations: a chance to look at the evidence together, ask questions, exchange ideas and find practical actions that really make a difference.
And there is one thing nearly all of us do several times every day: eat.
Food really does matter. In a European Commission analysis of household consumption footprints, the average Irish footprint in 2021 was estimated at 8.9 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) per person, of which 3.2 tonnes, or about 36%, came from food. This is a consumption-based estimate, so it includes the emissions embodied in what we consume rather than simply dividing Ireland’s national emissions by its population. It is also worth noting that 2021 was still an unusual Covid-affected year, particularly for travel. SEI
That does not mean food is the only climate issue, or even the most important one for every individual. How much we drive or fly, how our homes are heated, what we buy and many other factors matter enormously too. But food has one interesting characteristic: we get another chance to make a choice every day.
That was the subject of our September Skerries Climate Conversation.
Food to taste, and food for thought
There was food to taste as well as food for thought.
Sustainable Skerries members and friends brought along easy plant-based tasters, including wholemeal pasta with tomato, tofu and chickpeas, Vietnamese butternut squash curry, and marinated tempeh. The response was encouraging. One mother came with her two sons, who were impressed enough to promise that they would each make one of the recipes at home. (We are still awaiting photographic evidence, by the way! 😁)
Here are the recipes – click to expand!
Pasta with Tomato Sauce
Wholemeal pasta with tomato, tofu and chickpea sauce
Ingredients
- Wholemeal pasta
- Onion
- Garlic
- Firm tofu
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
- Seasoning to taste
Method
- Cook the pasta.
- Chop and soften the onion and garlic in a pan.
- Crumble the tofu into the pan and cook for a few minutes.
- Add the tinned tomatoes.
- Add the drained chickpeas.
- Simmer until everything is hot and the flavours have combined.
- Season to taste and serve with the pasta.
Marinated Air Fried Tempeh (goes well with nearly any veg or salad)
Marinated air-fried tempeh
For one 200–250 g block of tempeh:
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or lime juice
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- Optional chilli flakes or smoked paprika
Method
- Slice the tempeh into strips.
- Mix the marinade and coat the tempeh thoroughly.
- Leave for at least 30 minutes if possible.
- Air-fry at about 190°C for 8–12 minutes, turning halfway, until browned and slightly crisp at the edges.
Vietnamese Butternut Squash Curry
Vietnamese butternut squash curry
Adapted from a recipe from the Happy Pear Happy Heart course.
Ingredients
- 3 cloves garlic
- Thumb-sized piece fresh ginger
- 1 medium butternut squash / pumpkin, about 1.5 kg
- 2 × 400 ml tins light coconut milk
- Juice of 2 limes
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 4 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 300 g tempeh, or alternatively firm tofu/mushrooms
- ½ head pak choi
- 6 scallions
- Fresh coriander
Method
- Heat oven to about 180°C.
- Cut the squash into bite-sized pieces and roast for roughly 20 minutes.
- Blend the coconut milk, ginger, garlic, lime juice, honey, curry powder and tamari/soy sauce.
- Cut the tempeh into pieces, coat with some of the sauce and bake for about 15 minutes, stirring once.
- Bring the remaining sauce to the boil in a large saucepan, then reduce to a simmer.
- Add the roasted squash and cooked tempeh and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add finely chopped pak choi for the final 2–3 minutes.
- Finish with sliced scallions and fresh coriander.
Alongside the eating, there were plenty of facts to digest.
Test yourself: How would you rank these?
Much of our discussion was based on the excellent Fork Ranger Compass for Eating Sustainably. Before scrolling down, how would you rank the following in terms of their climate impact?
- More seasonal
- Talk to friends and get them to eat less beef
- Less dairy
- More local
- Less food waste
- Sustainable seafood
- Less packaging
- Replace beef
- More organic
- Less pork
- More nuts, legumes and whole grains
- Less chicken and eggs
Ready?
Fork Ranger puts them into five groups:
Most impact
- Replace beef
Very high impact
- Less food waste
- Talk to friends
Major impact
- Less pork
- Less dairy
- More nuts, legumes and whole grains
Smaller, but meaningful impact
- Sustainable seafood
- Less chicken and eggs
- More organic
- More seasonal
Minimal climate impact
- More local
- Less packaging
NB: Fork Ranger updated this Compass in December 2025. They are also careful to point out that it is primarily a climate-focused guide for sustainable eating, and that a priority list for sustainable farming would look different. ForkRanger
Does this surprise you? Obviously, choosing local, seasonal or organic food is important, especially for biodiversity, food security, local livelihoods etc. And Fairtrade can help improve social justice, impacting livelihoods and working conditions. Packaging matters for waste and resource use. But: For climate action, if you are reducing beef, eating more plant-based foods and wasting less food, you are already doing a lot.
In a nutshell:
Don’t demand perfection from every individual food choice. Know which decisions have the biggest climate impact, then consider the other things that matter to you as well.
Beef matters most… why???
Beef has a particularly high climate impact because cattle are ruminants and produce methane as part of digestion, as well as requiring considerable land and feed. Admittedly, Irish beef production is relatively efficient compared with beef production in many parts of the world. Teagasc reports an average emissions intensity of approximately 17.7 kg CO₂e per kg of Irish beef carcass, compared with about 18 kg in Western Europe and approximately 47 kg globally. Teagasc
But lower-carbon beef still has high emissions compared to chicken, beans, lentils, tofu and other protein-rich foods. Fork Ranger cites a 2016 study which found that replacing beef in a typical Western diet reduced its carbon footprint by around 21%, with plant-based replacements producing still larger reductions. ForkRanger
So eating less beef is one of the clearest food-related climate choices available to us. Maybe we could start with replacing one portion of beef a week with chicken – or even with plant-based food!
Chickpeas, tofu and tempeh may sound unfamiliar to some people. They did to some of us once too. However, a few good recipes can change that surprisingly quickly. And then tell somebody about the ones that worked for you!!! If another person also starts making high-impact changes, that’s even more CO2e saved. ForkRanger
Less food waste matters, too
Food waste is near the top of Fork Ranger’s list. Project Drawdown (a highly influential, non-profit organization and research database dedicated to reversing global warming) also identifies reducing food loss and waste as a highly recommended climate solution. Producing food that is ultimately discarded means that all the emissions associated with growing, processing and transporting it have also been generated unnecessarily. Project Drawdown®
- Eat the leftovers.
- Freeze the bread.
- Check the fridge before shopping.
- Use the slightly tired vegetables.
- And save money at the same time.
The choices we have matter, too
Our choices are shaped by what farmers can viably produce, what shops stock, what gets discounted and promoted, how food is marketed, what information appears on packaging, and what agricultural and food policies support.
Retailers are not simply passive observers of consumer demand.
Bord Bia research published this year found that 36% of consumers say promotions and loyalty incentives influence their fresh-produce shopping. In August 2026, Aldi, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, SuperValu/Centra and Tesco committed to a new voluntary Horticulture Grower-Retail Charter, covering fair engagement with growers, clearer promotion of Irish produce, longer-term relationships, realistic approaches to production costs, and collaboration to reduce food loss and waste. Bord Bia
It will be worth watching what difference that voluntary commitment makes in practice.
Could Ireland produce more of its own fruit and vegetables?
Irish horticulture currently uses less than 0.4% of utilised agricultural land, while Ireland imports more than €1 billion worth of horticultural food products each year. Of course, some of those imports, such as bananas and citrus fruit, cannot realistically be replaced by Irish production. But many others can. In 2024 alone, Ireland imported 56,000 tonnes of apples, 45,000 tonnes of onions, 29,000 tonnes of carrots and turnips, 28,000 tonnes of tomatoes and 21,000 tonnes of cabbage. CSO Teagasc explicitly identifies horticulture as an opportunity for agricultural diversification, capable of generating relatively high revenues from a small land base and with lower emissions than traditional ruminant-based systems. Teagasc
Expanding viable Irish horticulture is possible if consumers, growers, retailers and policymakers to pull in the same direction.
So?
So we are consumers, of course, but we are not only consumers. What we buy sends signals. So does what we ask supermarkets to stock. So does supporting growers and producers whose practices we value.
As voters, we can respond to consultations. We can ask questions. We can support policies that make sustainable choices easier rather than expecting everyone to navigate a complicated food system alone. We can ask elected representatives how food, farming, biodiversity and climate policy fit together.
You can start here: Ask yourself this week:
Could you replace one beef meal this week?
Could you cook one meal centred on beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu or tempeh?
Could you rescue something from your fridge rather than throwing it away?
Then, if it works, do it again. And tell somebody.
Let’s keep the conversation going!
If you would like to explore further:
- Fork Ranger has an excellent website, free app and Instagram account explaining sustainable food choices without expecting everyone to become perfect overnight. Its current Compass is a particularly useful starting point. Explore the Fork Ranger Compass
- Project Drawdown is an international climate-solutions research organisation. Start with Project Drawdown Food Solutions
- GIY is an excellent Irish resource if you would like to reconnect with where food comes from by growing some of your own, or simply learn more about seasonal food and cooking. GROW HQ
By the way: Ireland’s Climate Ambassador programme, coordinated by An Taisce, is currently accepting applications for 2027. No previous climate expertise is required. Send us an email to sustskerries@gmail.com if you’d like more information, Sabine (one of our committee members) is part of the 2026 Climate Ambassador programme. Climate Ambassador
Here are some books we recommend:
- Frank Holleman, Fork Ranger: Solving Climate Change with Food
- John Gibbons, The Lie of the Land
- Paul Hawken (ed.), Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
- Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying Zhao, Leave the Lights On: How Joyful Decisions Can Save Our Species
What’s next in Skerries?
Our next Skerries Climate Conversation is:
Not All Doom and Gloom: Why Climate Action is Such a Positive Thing
Wednesday 21 October, 7.30 pm
Skerries Harps GAA Clubhouse
We’ll watch specially selected highlights from a Project Drawdown conversation between climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley, then discuss what their ideas mean for climate action here in Skerries. Sign up here!
And yes, after that we are already thinking about Christmas for our November Climate Conversations. Not too early. Just in time to allow you to make more sustainable choices! December may involve a pub quiz with an eco twist…. Make sure you’ll know about it by subscribing to our Sustainable Skerries newsletter and following us on Facebook and / or Instagram
This event was supported by Fingal County Council.
Twenty children, a week in Ardgillan and a lot of clay, paint, plants, bats and bicycles make for a very special Sustainable Skerries summer project in August. Now in its third year, the idea behind the nature camp is to give children the chance to get outdoors, get creative and have fun in nature.
Over the course of the week, the children took part in a wide range of activities, like nature walks, tree art, yoga, bird watching and lots more. They learned about bats and the important role they play in our ecosystems. They also had the opportunity to start learning about wildflowers with Zoë Devlin’s fabulous plant ID book, Wildflowers of Ireland. Identifying wild plants is a lovely way for children to start noticing what is growing all around us.
Sustainable Skerries believe there is something really valuable about giving children this kind of experience. Children get to understand nature as somewhere to be creative, discover wildlife, make things with natural materials, relax in and enjoy. Sustainable Skerries also hope that an annual camp can help children build curiosity, develop an appreciation for local biodiversity and understand why looking after our environment matters.
The 20 places were snapped up within minutes, which shows the appetite for opportunities like this in our community.
The week was made possible through very generous support from Fingal County Council, which sponsored the project and provided the permits to use the grounds at Ardgillan. That support is essential to running an event like this.
Amy and Edel from Colour and Art (https://www.colourandart.ie/) led the activities and were inspiring, encouraging and kind while giving the children plenty of room to be themselves. Pauline, Ciara and Breda were the Sustainable Skerries volunteers who organised and helped run the event.
And the week didn’t finish in the usual way. On the last day, the children visited an open orchard with Sabine (Skerries Open Orchard Project / Sustainable Skerries) before heading off on a fun cycle with Michael, Dave and Steve of Skerries Cycling Initiative. They cycled down to South Strand, where they enjoyed being outdoors and got to see some of the other community projects happening in Skerries, including the Community eCargo Bike, the Cycling Without Age Trishaw and the Sustainable Skerries Beach Toy Box.
There is something heartening about seeing a group of young children getting excited about birds, wildflowers, trees, clay, bicycles and the beach. They were learning and discovering all week, but it never felt like school.
If you’d like to be among the first to know about such projects, make sure to subscribe to the Sustainable Skerries Email Newsletter!
The following is the long form of our submission; the actual submission, as uploaded on 17/08/2026, can be accessed here: Sustainable Skerries CAP26 Submission
Sustainable Skerries, a committee of the Skerries Community Association based in North County Dublin, welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation on the next update to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
The context for Climate Action Plan 2026 is stark. The EPA’s May 2026 projections indicate that, even with full implementation of currently planned policies and measures, Ireland would achieve only about a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, against a legally binding national target of 51%. The second carbon budget for 2026–2030 is projected to be exceeded by between 53 and 82 Mt CO₂eq.
At the same time, the effects of a changing climate are becoming increasingly difficult to consider in the abstract. Met Éireann reports that July 2026 was Ireland’s second-hottest July since 1900 and the driest July on record, with rainfall nationally at just 17% of the 1991–2020 average.
We therefore agree that CAP26 must focus strongly on implementation and on the actions capable of having the greatest impact. In particular, we believe six overarching principles should guide the Plan:
- Ireland must prioritise high-impact structural change. CAP26 should distinguish clearly between actions capable of materially reducing national emissions and worthwhile supporting activities whose primary benefits are awareness, biodiversity, adaptation or community resilience.
- Agricultural policy must move beyond improving the greenhouse-gas efficiency of existing production towards diversification and land-use change. The State should provide much greater support for horticulture, tillage, organic farming, agroforestry and other forms of ecologically beneficial food production, while ensuring a fair transition for farmers currently dependent on livestock production.
- Climate adaptation must become a design requirement now. Housing, infrastructure and spatial planning must be based on the climate Ireland is likely to experience during their lifetime, including increased risks from drought, water scarcity, intense rainfall, flooding, overheating and coastal impacts.
- Energy and material demands matter as well as supply. Renewable energy must expand rapidly, but CAP26 should also constrain avoidable growth in energy and material consumption, particularly where large new energy loads could undermine decarbonisation elsewhere.
- Transport policy should reduce car dependency in general, not merely fossil-fuel-car dependency. Spatial planning that reduces the need to travel, strong local services, public transport and active travel should come first, with EVs forming part of the solution for the motorised journeys that remain.
- Climate action and biodiversity protection must not be traded against each other. Renewable energy development needs to be accelerated through strategic spatial planning, grid investment and more efficient procedures, while retaining strong ecological safeguards.
Delivery and accountability must underpin all six priorities. Given the scale of the projected gap to Ireland’s legally binding climate targets, Ireland’s problem is no longer a shortage of worthwhile aspirations. CAP26 must ensure that the changes needed actually happen.
Delivery, measurement and local implementation
Many of the points raised in our previous submission to the consultation on Climate Action Plan 2024 remain relevant.
Actions in local authority climate action plans should be linked wherever possible to specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals. We welcome the progress Fingal County Council has made to date, as outlined in its Climate Action Plan Progress Report of May 2026. However, where measurable targets are absent, it can be difficult to assess the scale of the impact achieved.
Local authorities need effective ways of determining which actions are having the greatest mitigation or adaptation impact so that limited funding, staff time and community effort can be directed accordingly. Reporting that an action has commenced or progressed is not, on its own, sufficient to demonstrate climate impact.
This does not mean that activities primarily supporting climate literacy, biodiversity, community resilience or engagement are not valuable. They can be extremely worthwhile. However, they should be identified and evaluated according to the outcomes they are intended to achieve rather than treated as equivalent to actions capable of substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Electricity demand, renewable energy and data centres
We remain concerned about the impact of rapidly growing data centre electricity demand. The Climate Change Advisory Council reported in 2026 that data centre electricity demand had grown from approximately 5% of electricity demand in 2015 to more than 20%.
As highlighted in the Oireachtas Report on Barriers to Achieving Climate Targets 2026–30, CAP26 should prioritise immediate and long-term electricity demand-management strategies, particularly in respect of very large energy users.
The underlying principle should be that Ireland cannot rely solely on continually increasing renewable electricity generation while allowing avoidable electricity demand to grow without constraint. Increased electricity demand arising from necessary electrification of heating, transport and other fossil-fuel uses is different from discretionary additional demand from new large energy users.
New large energy users should therefore be required to demonstrate that their demand can be accommodated without jeopardising Ireland’s carbon budgets, security of supply, grid resilience or the decarbonisation of existing electricity demand. Where renewable generation is required to support new developments, this should represent genuinely additional renewable capacity rather than simply competing for renewable electricity already needed to decarbonise the existing economy.
We also remain concerned about evidence that increasing data centre electricity demand may contribute to energy affordability pressures for households and communities.
See also Friends of the Earth Cost of Data Centre Growth in Ireland
Aviation
We ask that decarbonisation of the aviation sector is addressed more fully in CAP26. Technological improvements and alternative fuels should form part of the response, but CAP26 should also consider demand-management measures rather than assuming that continued growth in aviation demand can be reconciled with Ireland’s carbon budgets solely through future technological change.
Community engagement and public support
Community engagement is necessary for climate action but is not sufficient. People also need appropriate infrastructure, services and practical opportunities to change their behaviour.
CAP26 should therefore explicitly recognise that responsibility cannot simply be transferred to individuals and communities without enabling conditions. Local authorities and community organisations need adequate financial, technical and administrative support.
Our experience in Skerries suggests, for example, that retrofitting community buildings can be unnecessarily difficult. CAP26 should include measures to identify and remove the practical, regulatory and financial obstacles facing community organisations seeking to retrofit buildings or undertake other substantial climate projects.
There is also a need to understand better why climate measures that enjoy broad support in principle can encounter strong opposition when particular projects are proposed.
Recent examples in Skerries include debate around the proposed North Irish Sea Array offshore wind development and Fingal County Council’s Active Travel Plan.
Residents raise concern as Ireland’s six new offshore wind farms move closer to reality and regarding Fingal County Council’s Active Travel Plan Over 600 submissions made to Fingal County Council over Skerries Active Travel Plan | Irish Independent.
These are very different projects, and objections should not automatically be interpreted as opposition to climate action. Concerns may arise from genuine environmental or biodiversity issues, perceived financial or practical impacts, lack of trust or participation, disagreement about particular designs, or misinformation about climate change.
CAP26 should prioritise research into such experiences and systematically share lessons about early public participation, communication, decision-making and conflict resolution. Ireland needs to become better at distinguishing legitimate concerns that should influence project design from barriers that can be overcome through better information, consultation or support.
Climate-resilient buildings and infrastructure
It is generally easier and more cost-effective to incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation measures at the beginning of a development than to retrofit them later.
Buildings constructed in 2026 may still be in use towards the end of this century. Building regulations and planning requirements should therefore be based not only on present conditions but on the climate those buildings are likely to experience throughout their lifetime.
CAP26 should prioritise the development and strengthening of legislation and building standards covering measures such as:
- renewable energy generation and low-carbon heating;
- high levels of energy efficiency;
- water efficiency;
- rainwater harvesting and storage;
- greywater reuse where appropriate;
- sustainable drainage and management of intense rainfall;
- resilience to flooding;
- passive protection against overheating;
- resilience to extreme weather; and
- appropriate provision for EV charging.
The Climate Change Advisory Council has similarly highlighted the need for greater flood protection, improved water-use efficiency, indoor thermal regulation and greater resilience to extreme wind.
Climate adaptation should no longer be treated mainly as something to be added to existing buildings and infrastructure after problems arise. It should become a fundamental requirement of new development.
Transport and spatial planning
Transport remains Fingal’s second-largest source of emissions. However, transport policy should not focus primarily on replacing internal-combustion-engine cars with electric cars.
CAP26 should prioritise a hierarchy of reducing the need for motorised journeys; shifting journeys towards walking, cycling and public transport; and electrifying the motorised transport that remains.
Land-use and transport planning should therefore increasingly make it possible for people to live close to employment, schools, shops, services and amenities. Compact, walkable towns and neighbourhoods with strong local services can reduce car dependency while also improving quality of life.
Towns such as Skerries also need substantially better local public transport. More frequent local bus services, ideally using zero-emission vehicles, could reduce car dependence without many of the long infrastructure lead times associated with larger transport projects. There is local support for improved services of this kind.
As highlighted in the Oireachtas Report on Barriers to Achieving Climate Targets, measures such as additional EV bus stock, school bus provision and rural bus networks can be frontloaded without the infrastructural delays affecting major transport projects, and should therefore be prioritised.
CAP26 should therefore place greater emphasis not simply on the number of EVs on Irish roads but on measurable reductions in car dependency, private vehicle kilometres and the proportion of everyday journeys that require an individual motorised vehicle.
Renewable energy and biodiversity
Ireland urgently needs much more renewable electricity and the grid infrastructure required to use it effectively. Planning and delivery processes need to become faster and more predictable.
However, climate action and biodiversity protection should not be treated as competing objectives. Poorly located renewable-energy infrastructure can create genuine environmental impacts, while lengthy and adversarial project-by-project disputes also jeopardise Ireland’s ability to meet its renewable-energy targets.
CAP26 should therefore support stronger strategic spatial planning for renewable energy, identifying suitable and environmentally sensitive areas at an early stage, supported by robust ecological evidence and meaningful community participation.
This should enable Ireland both to accelerate renewable-energy deployment and to uphold strong environmental and biodiversity obligations.
Land use, housing and climate resilience
We recognise the urgent need for additional housing. However, meeting housing need should not mean that climate adaptation, food security, biodiversity and flood resilience are given insufficient weight in planning decisions.
CAP26 should promote a clear hierarchy that prioritises the development of existing serviced and residentially zoned land, brownfield and infill sites, vacant and underused buildings, and compact development close to existing services and public transport.
A significantly higher threshold should apply before development takes place on strategically important green belts, prime agricultural land capable of contributing to domestic food production, areas important for biodiversity and community wellbeing, or land with significant present or future flood risk.
In that context, we are concerned by recent decisions in Fingal to rezone green-belt areas despite significant concerns about flood risk and local opposition. Decisions about housing and land use need to be demonstrably consistent with Ireland’s climate mitigation and adaptation objectives. Fingal approves 5,000 new homes amid ‘significant’ flood risk concerns in green belt areas | Irish Independent.
Agriculture, land use and food security
The agricultural sector requires more fundamental structural attention in CAP26.
Much existing climate policy in agriculture focuses on reducing emissions from the current production model. While improved efficiency is valuable, it will not by itself address the scale of the transition required.
Ireland must actively support greater agricultural diversification, including substantially increased horticulture, tillage, organic farming, agroforestry and production of plant foods for the domestic market.
This would contribute not only to emissions reduction but to food security and resilience. Ireland currently devotes a very large proportion of its agricultural land to grassland-based livestock production, while remaining heavily dependent on imports for many foods that could be produced domestically.
The Climate Change Advisory Council has itself identified agricultural diversification as vital and called for policies supporting organic production, expanded tillage and agroforestry.
CAP26 should therefore set a clear direction for agricultural policy and public funding. State and EU agricultural supports within Ireland’s influence should increasingly reward measurable outcomes including lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced reliance on synthetic nitrogen, healthy soils, water protection and retention, biodiversity, crop diversity and production contributing to a resilient food system.
Any such transition must be fair to farmers. Farmers whose businesses have developed within a policy and subsidy system that has encouraged livestock production need practical advice, secure routes to market, investment support and adequate financial incentives to make alternative land uses economically viable.
See also The Lie of the Land: A morning with John Gibbons | Sustainable Skerries
Conclusion
Ireland is substantially off course for its legally binding 2030 climate targets at the same time as the impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly evident.
CAP26 therefore needs to do more than add further actions to an already extensive list. It must identify and prioritise the structural changes capable of closing the emissions gap, build adaptation into the decisions and infrastructure being made today, and establish clear mechanisms for measuring whether implementation is succeeding.
For Sustainable Skerries, the priorities are clear: high-impact action; agricultural and land-use transition; climate-resilient development; management of energy and material demand as well as renewable supply; reduced car dependency; protection of biodiversity alongside rapid renewable-energy deployment; and strong delivery and accountability across all sectors.
We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this consultation and hope that these comments are useful in shaping a Climate Action Plan capable of delivering the scale and speed of change now required.
Sustainable Skerries Submission on Climate Action Plan 2026 Priorities
Sustainable Skerries, a committee of the Skerries Community Association based in North County Dublin, welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation on the next update to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
The context for Climate Action Plan 2026 is stark. The EPA’s May 2026 projections indicate that, even with full implementation of currently planned policies and measures, Ireland would achieve only about a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, against a legally binding national target of 51%. The second carbon budget for 2026–2030 is projected to be exceeded by between 53 and 82 Mt CO₂eq.
At the same time, the effects of a changing climate are becoming increasingly difficult to consider in the abstract. Met Éireann reports that July 2026 was Ireland’s second-hottest July since 1900 and the driest July on record, with rainfall nationally at just 17% of the 1991–2020 average.
We therefore agree that CAP26 must focus strongly on implementation and on the actions capable of having the greatest impact. In particular, we believe six overarching principles should guide the Plan:
- Ireland must prioritise high-impact structural change. CAP26 should distinguish clearly between actions capable of materially reducing national emissions and worthwhile supporting activities whose primary benefits are awareness, biodiversity, adaptation or community resilience.
- Agricultural policy must move beyond improving the greenhouse-gas efficiency of existing production towards diversification and land-use change. The State should provide much greater support for horticulture, tillage, organic farming, agroforestry and other forms of ecologically beneficial food production, while ensuring a fair transition for farmers currently dependent on livestock production.
- Climate adaptation must become a design requirement now. Housing, infrastructure and spatial planning must be based on the climate Ireland is likely to experience during their lifetime, including increased risks from drought, water scarcity, intense rainfall, flooding, overheating and coastal impacts.
- Energy and material demands matter as well as supply. Renewable energy must expand rapidly, but CAP26 should also constrain avoidable growth in energy and material consumption, particularly where large new energy loads could undermine decarbonisation elsewhere.
- Transport policy should reduce car dependency in general, not merely fossil-fuel-car dependency. Spatial planning that reduces the need to travel, strong local services, public transport and active travel should come first, with EVs forming part of the solution for the motorised journeys that remain.
- Climate action and biodiversity protection must not be traded against each other. Renewable energy development needs to be accelerated through strategic spatial planning, grid investment and more efficient procedures, while retaining strong ecological safeguards.
Delivery and accountability must underpin all six priorities. Given the scale of the projected gap to Ireland’s legally binding climate targets, Ireland’s problem is no longer a shortage of worthwhile aspirations. CAP26 must ensure that the changes needed actually happen.
Delivery, measurement and local implementation
Many of the points raised in our previous submission to the consultation on Climate Action Plan 2024 remain relevant.
Actions in local authority climate action plans should be linked wherever possible to specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals. We welcome the progress Fingal County Council has made to date, as outlined in its Climate Action Plan Progress Report of May 2026. However, where measurable targets are absent, it can be difficult to assess the scale of the impact achieved.
Local authorities need effective ways of determining which actions are having the greatest mitigation or adaptation impact so that limited funding, staff time and community effort can be directed accordingly. Reporting that an action has commenced or progressed is not, on its own, sufficient to demonstrate climate impact.
This does not mean that activities primarily supporting climate literacy, biodiversity, community resilience or engagement are not valuable. They can be extremely worthwhile. However, they should be identified and evaluated according to the outcomes they are intended to achieve rather than treated as equivalent to actions capable of substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Electricity demand, renewable energy and data centres
We remain concerned about the impact of rapidly growing data centre electricity demand. The Climate Change Advisory Council reported in 2026 that data centre electricity demand had grown from approximately 5% of electricity demand in 2015 to more than 20%.
As highlighted in the Oireachtas Report on Barriers to Achieving Climate Targets 2026–30, CAP26 should prioritise immediate and long-term electricity demand-management strategies, particularly in respect of very large energy users.
The underlying principle should be that Ireland cannot rely solely on continually increasing renewable electricity generation while allowing avoidable electricity demand to grow without constraint. Increased electricity demand arising from necessary electrification of heating, transport and other fossil-fuel uses is different from discretionary additional demand from new large energy users.
New large energy users should therefore be required to demonstrate that their demand can be accommodated without jeopardising Ireland’s carbon budgets, security of supply, grid resilience or the decarbonisation of existing electricity demand. Where renewable generation is required to support new developments, this should represent genuinely additional renewable capacity rather than simply competing for renewable electricity already needed to decarbonise the existing economy.
We also remain concerned about evidence that increasing data centre electricity demand may contribute to energy affordability pressures for households and communities.
See also Friends of the Earth Cost of Data Centre Growth in Ireland
Aviation
We ask that decarbonisation of the aviation sector is addressed more fully in CAP26. Technological improvements and alternative fuels should form part of the response, but CAP26 should also consider demand-management measures rather than assuming that continued growth in aviation demand can be reconciled with Ireland’s carbon budgets solely through future technological change.
Community engagement and public support
Community engagement is necessary for climate action but is not sufficient. People also need appropriate infrastructure, services and practical opportunities to change their behaviour.
CAP26 should therefore explicitly recognise that responsibility cannot simply be transferred to individuals and communities without enabling conditions. Local authorities and community organisations need adequate financial, technical and administrative support.
Our experience in Skerries suggests, for example, that retrofitting community buildings can be unnecessarily difficult. CAP26 should include measures to identify and remove the practical, regulatory and financial obstacles facing community organisations seeking to retrofit buildings or undertake other substantial climate projects.
There is also a need to understand better why climate measures that enjoy broad support in principle can encounter strong opposition when particular projects are proposed.
Recent examples in Skerries include debate around the proposed North Irish Sea Array offshore wind development and Fingal County Council’s Active Travel Plan.
Residents raise concern as Ireland’s six new offshore wind farms move closer to reality and regarding Fingal County Council’s Active Travel Plan Over 600 submissions made to Fingal County Council over Skerries Active Travel Plan | Irish Independent.
These are very different projects, and objections should not automatically be interpreted as opposition to climate action. Concerns may arise from genuine environmental or biodiversity issues, perceived financial or practical impacts, lack of trust or participation, disagreement about particular designs, or misinformation about climate change.
CAP26 should prioritise research into such experiences and systematically share lessons about early public participation, communication, decision-making and conflict resolution. Ireland needs to become better at distinguishing legitimate concerns that should influence project design from barriers that can be overcome through better information, consultation or support.
Climate-resilient buildings and infrastructure
It is generally easier and more cost-effective to incorporate climate mitigation and adaptation measures at the beginning of a development than to retrofit them later.
Buildings constructed in 2026 may still be in use towards the end of this century. Building regulations and planning requirements should therefore be based not only on present conditions but on the climate those buildings are likely to experience throughout their lifetime.
CAP26 should prioritise the development and strengthening of legislation and building standards covering measures such as:
- renewable energy generation and low-carbon heating;
- high levels of energy efficiency;
- water efficiency;
- rainwater harvesting and storage;
- greywater reuse where appropriate;
- sustainable drainage and management of intense rainfall;
- resilience to flooding;
- passive protection against overheating;
- resilience to extreme weather; and
- appropriate provision for EV charging.
The Climate Change Advisory Council has similarly highlighted the need for greater flood protection, improved water-use efficiency, indoor thermal regulation and greater resilience to extreme wind.
Climate adaptation should no longer be treated mainly as something to be added to existing buildings and infrastructure after problems arise. It should become a fundamental requirement of new development.
Transport and spatial planning
Transport remains Fingal’s second-largest source of emissions. However, transport policy should not focus primarily on replacing internal-combustion-engine cars with electric cars.
CAP26 should prioritise a hierarchy of reducing the need for motorised journeys; shifting journeys towards walking, cycling and public transport; and electrifying the motorised transport that remains.
Land-use and transport planning should therefore increasingly make it possible for people to live close to employment, schools, shops, services and amenities. Compact, walkable towns and neighbourhoods with strong local services can reduce car dependency while also improving quality of life.
Towns such as Skerries also need substantially better local public transport. More frequent local bus services, ideally using zero-emission vehicles, could reduce car dependence without many of the long infrastructure lead times associated with larger transport projects. There is local support for improved services of this kind.
As highlighted in the Oireachtas Report on Barriers to Achieving Climate Targets, measures such as additional EV bus stock, school bus provision and rural bus networks can be frontloaded without the infrastructural delays affecting major transport projects, and should therefore be prioritised.
CAP26 should therefore place greater emphasis not simply on the number of EVs on Irish roads but on measurable reductions in car dependency, private vehicle kilometres and the proportion of everyday journeys that require an individual motorised vehicle.
Renewable energy and biodiversity
Ireland urgently needs much more renewable electricity and the grid infrastructure required to use it effectively. Planning and delivery processes need to become faster and more predictable.
However, climate action and biodiversity protection should not be treated as competing objectives. Poorly located renewable-energy infrastructure can create genuine environmental impacts, while lengthy and adversarial project-by-project disputes also jeopardise Ireland’s ability to meet its renewable-energy targets.
CAP26 should therefore support stronger strategic spatial planning for renewable energy, identifying suitable and environmentally sensitive areas at an early stage, supported by robust ecological evidence and meaningful community participation.
This should enable Ireland both to accelerate renewable-energy deployment and to uphold strong environmental and biodiversity obligations.
Land use, housing and climate resilience
We recognise the urgent need for additional housing. However, meeting housing need should not mean that climate adaptation, food security, biodiversity and flood resilience are given insufficient weight in planning decisions.
CAP26 should promote a clear hierarchy that prioritises the development of existing serviced and residentially zoned land, brownfield and infill sites, vacant and underused buildings, and compact development close to existing services and public transport.
A significantly higher threshold should apply before development takes place on strategically important green belts, prime agricultural land capable of contributing to domestic food production, areas important for biodiversity and community wellbeing, or land with significant present or future flood risk.
In that context, we are concerned by recent decisions in Fingal to rezone green-belt areas despite significant concerns about flood risk and local opposition. Decisions about housing and land use need to be demonstrably consistent with Ireland’s climate mitigation and adaptation objectives. Fingal approves 5,000 new homes amid ‘significant’ flood risk concerns in green belt areas | Irish Independent.
Agriculture, land use and food security
The agricultural sector requires more fundamental structural attention in CAP26.
Much existing climate policy in agriculture focuses on reducing emissions from the current production model. While improved efficiency is valuable, it will not by itself address the scale of the transition required.
Ireland must actively support greater agricultural diversification, including substantially increased horticulture, tillage, organic farming, agroforestry and production of plant foods for the domestic market.
This would contribute not only to emissions reduction but to food security and resilience. Ireland currently devotes a very large proportion of its agricultural land to grassland-based livestock production, while remaining heavily dependent on imports for many foods that could be produced domestically.
The Climate Change Advisory Council has itself identified agricultural diversification as vital and called for policies supporting organic production, expanded tillage and agroforestry.
CAP26 should therefore set a clear direction for agricultural policy and public funding. State and EU agricultural supports within Ireland’s influence should increasingly reward measurable outcomes including lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced reliance on synthetic nitrogen, healthy soils, water protection and retention, biodiversity, crop diversity and production contributing to a resilient food system.
Any such transition must be fair to farmers. Farmers whose businesses have developed within a policy and subsidy system that has encouraged livestock production need practical advice, secure routes to market, investment support and adequate financial incentives to make alternative land uses economically viable.
See also The Lie of the Land: A morning with John Gibbons | Sustainable Skerries
Conclusion
Ireland is substantially off course for its legally binding 2030 climate targets at the same time as the impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly evident.
CAP26 therefore needs to do more than add further actions to an already extensive list. It must identify and prioritise the structural changes capable of closing the emissions gap, build adaptation into the decisions and infrastructure being made today, and establish clear mechanisms for measuring whether implementation is succeeding.
For Sustainable Skerries, the priorities are clear: high-impact action; agricultural and land-use transition; climate-resilient development; management of energy and material demand as well as renewable supply; reduced car dependency; protection of biodiversity alongside rapid renewable-energy deployment; and strong delivery and accountability across all sectors.
We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this consultation and hope that these comments are useful in shaping a Climate Action Plan capable of delivering the scale and speed of change now required.
Written by Sabine McKenna, 13 July 2026.
I am a member of the Sustainable Skerries committee, but this article reflects my own views, not agreed committee policy.
What if one of the best ways to respond to the climate crisis is to come together locally around food: growing it, sharing it, protecting it, and doing what we can to make sure everyone in our community has access to food that is healthy for people and planet?
That was one of the ideas I brought home from the Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference 2026 in Ballina. The conference explored climate justice, biodiversity, food security, community resilience and local action, and left me thinking about what these ideas could mean here in Skerries.
The full theme of this year’s conference was Food and Care: A Meitheal for Our Time. How could I resist going, given that food is one of my central areas of focus in climate action? And as one of An Taisce’s 2026 Climate Ambassadors, I had an additional reason to make the effort and attend.
What is a meitheal?
Meitheal is an Irish word, pronounced roughly MEH-hul or MEH-hell. It means neighbours coming together to help with shared work.
Mary Robinson described it as “the spirit of co-operation and sharing between neighbours”. Traditionally, it might have meant helping each other to save the hay before the weather turned.
Today, we can bring that same spirit to any work that needs doing and is best done in community, including work relating to climate action, local food, biodiversity and community resilience.
Why this matters here
On a lovely July day here in Skerries, one could be forgiven for thinking that all seems well in the world. And yet, every day we are made sharply aware of just how much that is not so. What is a balmy summer afternoon in Skerries is an uncomfortably hot day in other parts of Ireland and a life-threatening heatwave in large areas of continental Europe.
We have already begun having to adjust to more extreme weather in Ireland: heavy downpours alternating with long dry spells, and stronger winds that have already taken their toll on our trees. The fact that the situation is worse in other parts of the world does not make things better.
The conference organisers promised a lot:
The conference will ask a simple but powerful question: what will become possible when researchers, community groups, farmers, climate scientists, biodiversity experts, artists, and carers work side by side, listening to one another as equals?
This will not be a conference of passive audiences. It will be a gathering of participants, where every voice would be needed and welcomed.
From the conference notification on the Mary Robinson Centre website.
And the conference delivered. From the opening address by Mary Robinson herself to the final breakout rooms nearly two days later, it was full-on and sparked many thoughts and ideas.
One of the best aspects was the group of attendees. Whoever you ended up chatting to seemed to be involved in interesting climate, biodiversity, food or community projects, and there was a real openness to discussing the conference, those projects, and a host of other matters.
We must keep having the conversation
Food must be central to this. Many of us are already aware of the climate crisis, and of the fact that it is much closer to an emergency than ordinary public discussion often suggests. But the conference also brought home the vulnerability of our food system.
Ireland produces a great deal of food, yet much of our agricultural system is export-focused, while much of what we eat depends on imports, long supply chains and systems outside local control. Feeding ourselves better, more locally and more resiliently is possible. But it is not something that will happen by accident.
What made the conference different from a simple list of climate facts was the way food was discussed not only as a source of emissions or vulnerability, but as a place where care, community, land, health, skills and justice meet.
That is why the word meitheal mattered. Food security is not only a national policy question, though it is certainly that. It is also a community question.
Who grows food? Who has access to land? Who knows how to grow, cook, preserve and share food? Who is included in the conversation? And how do we make sure that the value created by local work, local knowledge and local care does not simply leak away?
It would be too much for this article to go into details about all the parts of the conference, given that I heard more than a dozen keynote speakers and at least as many during the breakout sessions… But some of the speakers and their organisations are mentioned at the very end, including some links. Now it is time to bring the thoughts and insights prompted during those two days into the ongoing conversations here in Skerries, in our own community, where they can strengthen work already underway and perhaps inspire new ideas whose time has come.
Community wealth building: what could it mean for Skerries?
One of the most striking examples at the conference came, perhaps unexpectedly, from Bohemian FC. Through Bohemian Cooperatives and their community wealth building work, the club is showing how a local institution can move from concern to practical projects: food, shared resources, skills, bikes, local ownership and community benefit.
For me, this raised one of the biggest questions to bring home to Skerries: if a football club can begin this kind of work in Dublin, what could a town like Skerries do through the community structures, skills, groups and relationships we already have?
This is not about copying Dublin 7. It is about noticing that practical climate and community work can begin from the institutions people already know and trust.
Much of our community work depends on grants, and grants matter. But if every new idea needs fresh funding from scratch, we will always be starting again. Community wealth building asks a different question: can today’s funding create assets, skills, venues, tools, relationships or expertise that make the next action easier?
We already have some of that here. The Skerries Community Centre, for example, is home to many sports, arts and cultural clubs, the Day Care Centre, and around 120 preschoolers every day in Sticky Fingers Montessori. Many clubs and schools are engaged in similar activities, renting out rooms and making activities possible in our town while creating an income.
The Skerries Community Association, with its committees and associated groups, including the Skerries Sustainable Energy Community Initiative, Sustainable Skerries, Tidy Towns, the Cycling Initiative and many more, is already close to this kind of civic activity. In some ways, we may be better placed than a football club to think about what community wealth building could mean in a whole town. So the opportunity is there.
What could we do, or do more of, to build true community wealth here in Skerries?
- Community-based skills and enterprise courses, even ones that could be translated into real local jobs, like they do in Bohemians?
- More local food growing and sharing, building on the experience of Skerries Mills Community Garden and Skerries Allotments?
- Stronger links between schools, local commercial growers, cafés and restaurants, local farmers and community groups? School meals come to mind as one area, and maybe even the Meals on Wheels.
- Revisiting community-supported agriculture? Sustainable Skerries was involved in setting this up long before my time. Has its time come again?
- More sharing and repair systems, perhaps even a Library of Things? Could this be part of the Skerries Town Centre First process?
- In short: How could we keep more value, skills and care circulating locally?
By the way, this may be a very good time to have these conversations in a more and more structured way, given that we’re about to start the process for the next Fingal Development Plan. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we, across all our differences, could form a vision for Skerries that would then feed, bottom-up, into the County Plan?
If you have ideas, views, thoughts or comments, then:
💚 Come to one of our events. The monthly Skerries Climate Conversations are particularly good for this. They usually take place once a month, often on a Wednesday evening.
💚 Send us an email: sustskerries@gmail.com
💚 Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, and comment on our posts.
We are all in this together. In this beautiful town. In this fascinating, multi-layered community. And in this climate chaos, alas.
Together, we can do our best to mitigate its extent and adapt to its consequences. And after the conference, if not long before, I for one am convinced that the multitude of possible solutions can be enriching and energising.
Here’s to the coming together, the meitheal of Skerries.
Some useful links I brought home, and why you might find them of interest
Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference 2026
The conference page gives the full context for this year’s theme, Food and Care: A Meitheal for Our Time, and lists the speakers, programme and supporting ideas. https://maryrobinsoncentre.ie/conference-2026/
Bohemian Cooperatives
A fascinating example of community wealth building linked to a football club, including ideas such as community-supported agriculture, a Library of Things, bike sharing, skills, education and environmental justice. https://bohemians.coop/home/
Listen to Seán McCabe, who was one of the main speakers at the conference, on the Climate Ambassador podcast:
https://climateambassador.ie/podcast/
Community Gardens Ireland
Useful for anyone interested in community gardens, local growing, policy and practical support for food-growing spaces. https://cgireland.org/
By the way, our local community garden has its own web page, full of glorious images, videos & information, now: https://www.skerriesmillscommunitygarden.ie/
EPA Food Waste Prevention and Stop Food Waste
The EPA’s food waste prevention page is a useful overview of why food waste matters for climate, resources and national policy. The EPA notes that Ireland wastes about 835,000 tonnes of food each year, and that food waste generates an estimated 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also links to Stop Food Waste, the EPA-managed national campaign to reduce household food waste in Ireland.
https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring–assessment/circular-economy/food-waste/
Odile Le Bolloch of the EPA spoke powerfully at the conference about how food waste needs both systems change and household action: better policy, better supply chains, better public understanding, and also better habits in our own kitchens.
Dr Rupa Marya and deep medicine
Dr Rupa Marya, one of the keynote speakers, is a physician, author and passionate advocate for deep medicine: a way of understanding health that connects our bodies to the land, our food systems and our communities.
This conversation on the GIY Food Matters podcast is a good starting point:
The wider GIY Food Matters podcast is also relevant:
https://giy.ie/blogs/food-matters-podcast
ACT Studio / Accelerating Change Together
ACT Studio, based in the West of Ireland, is a social enterprise of architects, urbanists and policy specialists working on the green transition in the built and natural environment. Their work connects climate action with design, community, town centres, coastal resilience and practical local change.
Fair Seas
Fair Seas campaigns for better protection of Ireland’s seas. Jack O’Donovan was one of the speakers at the conference, and his talk opened up a new way of thinking about the sea, marine protection, coastal communities and the hidden richness of life below the surface.
Their YouTube channel includes videos on seagrass, marine protected areas and Ireland’s coastal waters:
https://www.youtube.com/@fairseasireland
An Taisce Climate Ambassadors
The Climate Ambassador programme supports people across Ireland to communicate about climate change and take action in their own communities.
https://climateambassador.ie/climate-ambassadors/leinster/
Podcast:
https://climateambassador.ie/podcast/
Talamh Beo
Talamh Beo translates as “Living Soil”. It is an organisation of farmers, growers and citizens advocating for agroecology, food sovereignty and a better food system in Ireland. Non-farmers can also join and support their work.
Airfield Estate, Dundrum
Not just an online site, but a visit tip especially for those of us in Skerries who are interested in local food, food education and practical examples: Airfield Estate in Dundrum describes itself as 38 acres of farm, gardens and family fun, and its mission is “to inspire and enable informed food choices”. It also says it wants to support Dublin in becoming a leading Sustainable Food City, with a focus on sustainable food production and consumption.
Claire MacEvilly, Airfield’s CEO, spoke at one of the breakout sessions about their work around food, farming, education and sustainable choices.
UCC Office of Sustainability and Climate Action
The UCC Office of Sustainability and Climate Action is useful background for anyone interested in how institutions can organise sustainability and climate action across education, research, operations and community engagement.
https://www.ucc.ie/en/sustainability-climate-action/
Some Instagram accounts worth following
@talamhbeo
Irish farmers, growers and citizens advocating for agroecology, food sovereignty and fairer food systems. Especially relevant if you are interested in the future of farming, soil, food and land use.
@projdandelion
Project Dandelion is a women-led, but not women-only, global climate justice campaign. It is useful for hopeful, justice-focused climate communication and for connecting climate action with wider social issues. Mary Robinson was involved in setting it up and still plays a significant role.
@maryrobinsoncentre
The Mary Robinson Centre in Ballina shares work connected with human rights, climate justice, biodiversity loss and Mary Robinson’s legacy.
@acceleratingchangetogether
ACT Studio shares examples of regenerative design, community-led climate adaptation, resilient urbanism and climate action in the built environment.
@fairseasireland
Fair Seas shares marine conservation, ocean protection and coastal community content, including material on seagrass and marine protected areas.
Two podcasts you might find useful
Climate Ambassador podcast:
https://climateambassador.ie/podcast/
GIY Food Matters podcast:
“What, so many mini orchards?”
“We never knew there was one here!”
“And here!”
“When can we pick the apples?”
Those were some of the comments we heard during the Rolling Mini Orchards Picnic, our family-friendly Open Orchards cycle on Wednesday 17 June 2026.
In the lovely evening sun, around thirty people joined Sustainable Skerries and Skerries Cycling Initiative for a gentle cycle around six of Skerries’ fourteen mini open orchards. The group included individual adults as well as families with children, and we explored orchards in the areas of Newtonpark / Townparks, Skerries Rock, Selskar and Kelly’s Bay.
Skerries’ mini orchards have been established across the town over the last five years. Each one is a small group of fruit or nut trees, with between 6 and 30 trees in each location. Earlier this year, new signs designed by local artist Niamh Sharkey were installed at all fourteen orchards, thanks to support from Fingal County Council and Skerries Community Association. The signs help explain why the trees are there, and who the fruit is for. (Spoiler: the fruit is for all of us. That is the idea behind open orchards…)
This cycle was part of our monthly Skerries Climate Conversations series. Sustainable Skerries’ Sabine McKenna, one of the 2026 An Taisce Climate Ambassadors, spoke about how doing something useful that you love, such as helping to plant fruit trees, can be a meaningful and hopeful form of climate action.
A big thank-you to Skerries Cycling Initiative, who brought stewards, route knowledge and organisational know-how. The group explored some little-known paths and connections, and experienced how enjoyable it can be to get from A to B, and indeed C, by bike.
We ended the evening with a bring-and-share picnic in the oldest and largest of the Skerries open orchards, the Kelly’s Bay Open Orchard.
Dominica, our volunteer gardening expert and Head Gardener in Ardgillan, pointed out some of the trees growing there, including hazels, different kinds of apples, pears, and even medlars. We can’t wait for autumn and its harvest.
Adults interested in exploring other forms of local climate action are warmly invited to join our July Climate Conversation:
- Pints for the Planet: Climate Conversations to Dream up Climate Action
- Wednesday 15 July, 8 pm
- The Coast Inn, Church Street, Skerries
Thank you to everyone who joined us, and to all who continue to care for, notice and enjoy the open orchards around Skerries.
A Chance to Shape the Future Together
Fingal County Council’s Town Centre First process for Skerries is now under way, and Sustainable Skerries is taking part. And maybe you should, too! There will be a survey later on during the process, and you can also still (just about) join in. Read on…
We believe this process is very important for two reasons.
First, it is likely to have a direct influence on which projects in Skerries town centre are prioritised and better placed to attract future funding. The process will lead to an agreed action plan for the designated town centre area, and projects included in that plan are likely to be in a stronger position when funding opportunities arise.
Second, and just as importantly, it gives people and groups across Skerries a chance to work together, including people who do not always find themselves in the same room, or on the same side of local debates.
The first two workshops of a total of have already shown how valuable this can be. In small-group discussions, people from different backgrounds and perspectives were asked to think about what we would like Skerries town centre to be like in ten years’ time. What emerged was not division, but a strong sense of shared appreciation for the town we live in, and a surprising amount of common ground.
People spoke about a town centre that is welcoming, lively, attractive and accessible. They talked about better public spaces, thriving local businesses, active travel, visitor facilities, outdoor gathering spaces, heritage, culture, social connection and a town centre that works well for residents as well as visitors.
For us at Sustainable Skerries, these conversations matter deeply. The future of the town centre is closely linked to climate action, biodiversity, active travel, local food, public space, community wellbeing and resilience. It also connects strongly with the wider aims of the Skerries Community Association, of which we are of course a part, which are sustainability and inclusion. A good town centre should be a place where people of all ages and abilities feel welcome, where local businesses can thrive, and where it is easy to walk, cycle, meet, shop, rest and take part in community life.
The process focuses on the designated Skerries Town Centre area, shown in the map above. This is important to note: the area does not cover all of Skerries, and many issues we care about extend well beyond it. However, within this defined area, the Town Centre First process offers a real opportunity to shape priorities and help turn agreed ideas into fundable projects.
A number of SCA committees and associated community groups are already engaging with the process, including Sustainable Skerries, Skerries Tidy Towns, Skerries Cycling Initiative, Age Friendly representatives and others. The workshops are also bringing together residents, retailers, local businesses, heritage interests, community organisations and others who care about the future of the town centre.
The remaining workshops are expected to move from place and vision to objectives, survey results, draft actions, and finally an action plan and town team. The current schedule is:
| Date | Workshop theme |
|---|---|
| 3 June | Place Diagram and Place Analysis |
| 30 June | Vision and Strategy Objectives |
| 15 July | Review of Survey Results and Drafting of Actions |
| 28 July | Finalising Action Plan and Town Team |
The sessions take place in Skerries Library and start at 6.30 pm, with sign-in from 6 pm. It would be best to arrive from 6 pm, especially if you are joining for the first time. Groups and individuals who are interested in the future of Skerries town centre can still get involved, particularly if they are able to attend the remaining workshops. You can contact Fingal County Council’s Town Regeneration Office at townregenerationoffice@fingal.ie and/or come along to the next workshop and sign in on arrival.
Why?
This is a chance to think beyond individual projects and ask what kind of town centre Skerries needs for the coming decade. We may not all agree on every detail, but the process so far has shown that many of us want the same broad things: a vibrant, sustainable, inclusive, climate-aware town centre, rooted in local community life and worthy of the wonderful town we already have.
The May Skerries Climate Conversation
Sabine of Sustainable Skerries writes on 21 May 2026:
A big thank-you to everyone who came to last night’s Songs of Hope, the May event in our Skerries Climate Conversations series.
Around 30 people of all ages came together in Skerries Harps for a new kind of Sustainable Skerries event. With voices, ukuleles, guitars and other instruments, the group created a warm and uplifting atmosphere. There was music, shared reflection, and a real sense of connection and community, just the kind of hopeful energy that can help balance some of the heaviness that often surrounds conversations about climate and the environment.
We are very grateful to Dublin Climate Action Week / Fingal County Council for their support, and a huge thank-you as well to Skerries Harps for the wonderful venue.
If you would like more ukulele music, you can find all events for the Skerries Ukulele Festival on 29 and 30 May, including gigs, workshops, and beginner lessons for adults and children, at:https://skerriesukulelefestival.eventbrite.com/
And next up in our Climate Conversations series is the Rolling Orchard Picnic on 17 June at 7.30 pm. Join us by bike to experience five of the fourteen mini open orchards in Skerries, in a collaboration between Skerries Cycling Initiative and Sustainable Skerries. It is free, but places are limited, so please sign up using this form or email sustskerries@gmail.com.
Yesterday, Saturday 16 May 2026, the author of this blog post (Sabine McKenna) went over to Balbriggan to listen to John Gibbons, journalist and author of The Lie of the Land (2025). The talk was announced as follows: “John Gibbons has been writing and campaigning on environmental and climate issues for the last two decades. He founded the website Climatechange.ie, runs a blog at ThinkOrSwim.ie and regularly appears on national broadcast media outlets. John will discuss his book, The Lie of the Land: A game plan for Ireland in the climate crisis, which sets out a practical game plan for how Ireland can confront the climate crisis by transforming farming, energy and transport, while protecting rural communities and food security.” Here are Sabine’s thoughts. You may wish to follow her on Instagram, where she has started the account Climate Thoughts from Ireland.
If I was to summarise John Gibbons’ talk in Balbriggan Library yesterday, 16 May 2026, in three words, it would be these:
- Food.
- Energy.
- Community.
“The Lie of the Land,” John’s 2025 book, has a Friesian cow on its cover. Two banners frame him as he talks, with no notes nor slides, for some 90 minutes, commanding the full attention of his audience.
The cow is there to indicate the importance of animal agriculture to his central argument regarding food. Which is, as I understand it, that we, Ireland, are making a huge mistake in having allowed, and continuing to allow, so much of our land to be used for animal husbandry. This comes at a huge cost. John says that about 90% of agricultural produce is exported.
Rather than simply “feeding the world”, as is sometimes claimed publicly, this system relies heavily on imported feed, including grain and soy, often from parts of the world where land could otherwise support local food systems. This feed is then transformed into food, such as steak and dairy, for the international middle classes, John explains.
At a profit, he argues, which goes to larger corporations, not to small farmers – most farmers are barely making enough to get by.
All this happens not only at a huge environmental cost, it also contributes to increasing food insecurity here in Ireland. If my memory serves, John said that there used to be around 600 horticultural (veg and fruit) growers in Ireland – this is now down to some 60. We act as though international shipping is guaranteed. We rely on food imports for nearly all categories.
John is learning how to grow fruit and veg himself and recommends we all do so. He does not say this in an alarmist way, but he does point to a real risk that Ireland could face food shortages in the decades ahead. He also linked intensive animal agriculture to water pollution and biodiversity loss, reminding us that we are not separate from nature, but part of the living systems we are damaging.
And we are facing energy shortages, possibly.
Renewable energy might be able to come to the rescue there, and also help significantly in reducing CO2 and CO2-equivalent emissions. One hopeful note was John’s emphasis on how rapidly renewable energy has grown, and how central wind and solar could be to a different future.
John points out that bottom trawling of our seas causes a lot more damage to maritime wildlife than wind energy is likely to; with the added benefit that wind turbines actually protect the sea bed as the large trawlers cannot fish among them. “We need to stop burning stuff,” he says – a clear and simple message. He adds that it is not so much the individual who is at fault but the system. If there is no real alternative to the gas-burning central heating, then the individual can feel bad about continuing to use it, but will still do so.
And here we come to the third word – community. He mentioned for instance practical community-level changes, including the need for local authorities to make space for allotments and for society to rebuild the link between agriculture and the food we actually eat. When asked about the perceived backlash against environmental initiatives and pro-sustainability projects, which is tempting many eco activists to withdraw from public debate and focus on the private, John is very clear in his response. He says that it is only together with others that we can have any serious impact. We need to change the system if we want things to change. And that, I think, is the main message I take with me – while it is hard to keep going, it is also the only thing we can do, unless we are to give up. And neither John nor his audience on the day seem willing to take that way out.
PS: Our next event
20 May 2026: Skerries Climate Conversations – Songs of Hope. 7.30 pm, Skerries Harps GAA Clubhouse
Sustainable Skerries started a monthly series of evening events, always on the third Wednesday of every month.
The very first one took place on Wed 18th March in Skerries Library. The downstairs meeting room was filled to capacity when three local women shared their thoughts, ideas, and experiences.
Ernestine Woelger spoke about her life as a “green granny” to her two grandchildren, aged 3 and 1. Her motto could be: Reduce, Reuse, Repair; Nature and Garden.
Reducing what she buys is at the heart of her approach to a more sustainable life. Using the library instead of buying books; repurposing household items instead of buying toys. And reusing cloth nappies and cotton cloths instead of using throw-away nappies and baby wipes can make a huge difference, too – both financially and environmentally. Reusing old sheets and t-shirts for wipes is great, she says – you just need to wash them at 60 degrees.
Baby and children’s clothes can be shared locally through groups like Skerries Free Stuff on Facebook or the “Skerries Kids Preloved” WhatsApp group (contact sustskerries@gmail.com for details on the latter and we will put you in touch with Heidi, who runs it.)
There even is a baby carrier library in Skerries (contact us for that, too).
Old jumpers and t-shirts can be turned into cowls, scarves and more; torn garments can be mended – some even enjoy doing it in such a way that it’s easy to spot, e.g. darning socks with contrasting yarn. Talk about wearing your values on your sleeves (or feet)!
Cleaning with nature-friendly materials is a matter of course for her, too.
Ernestine even makes use of apple cores and apple peels. See the box below for her apple vinegar cleaner recipe!
But what gives her and her grandchildren most joy may be sharing time and food in and from the garden.
Whether it’s rhubarb, apples, raspberries, peas or any of the other edibles, caring for the plants and harvesting together is an experience that the grandchildren will carry with them into their lives.
Ernestine’s Cleaning Vinegar
Stuff a clean Killner jar with apple peels and apple cores.
Add 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Fill the jar up with water and close.
Leave to ferment, stirring occasionally.
The natural yeasts on the apple peels and cores will convert the sugars into very weak alcohol.
Once the mixture has started to bubble, the jar needs to be opened once a day to “burp” it.
When fermentation has stopped, remove the apple bits and fill the mixture into a clean jug.
Ernestine then adds citrus peels, rosemary, fir needles and lets the mixture steep until the vinegar smell is reduced.
She then strains the mixture and uses it as a spray on oven tops, worktops etc. She says that it’s very good on grease.
Eleni Vetsika has been involved with the Parent Teacher Association of Skerries Educate Together National School for many years now. She writes about Sustainability & the PTA:
In Skerries ETNS, we consciously took the decision to a) take up initiatives that would promote and encourage a more sustainable and circular logic and b) reimagine long-established initiatives in a greener way.
Take our Honesty Box: second hand children’s book sale. A simple and fun initiative that we now do on an annual basis that promotes reading, reusing, sharing and only paying what you can afford. The school community donates the children’s books they no longer want. We then display them in our hall -coinciding with world book day/week- where pupils, parents, guardians and teachers can visit and take away book(s) for a donation of their choice anonymously in the honesty box. Leftover books go to charity or other schools that might need them
We also run Halloween costume swap shops and festive jumper swap shops. Families are encouraged to bring along their old Halloween costumes and accessories in October and festive jumpers etc in December. They can just donate, or swap or just take/buy whatever they need. Good for the environment and the purse too especially as both Halloween and Xmas kids’ clothes are only worn a couple of times per year.
Togetherfest is our school fun day. In order to reduce purchasing little-used equipment, we asked the school community to lend us gazebos and sports equipment instead of buying new ones. We only invited crafters/traders to participate that have local and sustainable products. We held a nail station where all nail vanishes were old unwanted varnishes parents donated. We also had a used wet suit and sports shoes stall.
For our Love is Love bake sale (Valentine’s day), we use biodegradable gloves to handle the food and asked parents to send in an extra lunch box instead of using food bags for the children’s purchases. Also, we have zero waste: Our leftover cakes go to Feed Our Homeless, an outreach charity that works with the homeless in Dublin (North).
These are only some of the examples where Skerries ETNS PTA has been able to bring a sustainability note to our activities. This principle is also applied to enhancing and repairing the outdoors school areas and much more.
Having heard such engaging and interesting inputs on an individual and organisational level, Breda Naddy widened the focus once more, looking at “Greening emergency departments.”
Her talk highlighted the growing momentum behind sustainable healthcare in Ireland. The talk demonstrated how practical, staff-led changes can reduce energy use, waste and emissions without compromising patient care. The initiative shows that even in fast-paced clinical environments, small, targeted actions can deliver meaningful environmental impact.
Simple actions like better bin placement, switching from IV to oral medications where appropriate and reducing single-use plastics are delivering reductions in waste, emissions and costs.
We followed these three short inputs with a lively discussion about all the small things which we can do, which increase overall health, add to our enjoyment, are better financially and are also better for the environment, all while reducing the impact on the climate by having less CO2-equivalent inputs. Talk about quintuple wins!
If you’re interested in joining this ongoing series of “Skerries Climate Conversations,” follow us on Instagram and Facebook, subscribe to our email newsletter, join our WhatsApp “Chat4SustainableSkerries” group (contact sustskerries@gmail.com for both of those) and put the third Wednesday of every month into your diary now!
Our next few events are:
- Wed 15 April, 7-8.30 pm: Sustainable Gardening with Charlie and Marion Heasman. Free but strictly limited numbers, so you must sign up on our form. Location: Skerries Allotments.
- Wed 20 May: Songs of Hope. Bring your voice, bring an instrument, join the music.
Skerries Harps Clubhouse, from 7.30 pm. Doors open 7.15 pm. Free. Part of the Dublin Climate Action Week, with support from Fingal County Council. Lyrics and chords on the big screen: Send your song suggestions to sustskerries@gmail.com - Wed 17 June: Let’s celebrate the arrival of the Skerries Open Orchards signs with a Moving (possibly Rolling) Picnic. On your bike! Details to be agreed yet, but we are working on a cycle around all the open orchards, with picnic stops in 3 of them.
- Wed 15 July: tbc
- Wed 19 August: tbc
- Wed 16 September: tbc
- Wed 21 October: tbc
- Wed 18 November: tbc
- Wed 16 December: tbc
Is it really already our fifth year of planting fruit trees around Skerries? This year we focused on strengthening what we already have. After all, we now have 14 mini orchards across town. (If you’d like to see them all, search “Skerries Open Orchards” on Google Maps.)
What we did this year: Getting us to 194 trees in 14 mini orchards!
On our planting day (Sat 14 March 2026) we added 23 trees to our open orchards in total, and cared for our existing trees:
- added 7 trees to the Skerries Point mini orchard and 6 trees to Barnageeragh Cove – these are our latest additions to the mini orchards family: The trees we had planted in 2025 were doing well, and these two mini orchards have now doubled in size
- weeded and top-dressed most of the trees in Kelly’s Bay Open Orchard
- supported the Mourne View mini orchards too, with residents receiving 10 more trees for their two mini orchard sites
- replanted some trees that had not made it (luckily that’s usually very few, maybe one in ten or so)
A big thank-you goes to Fingal County Council. Without their support, we could not do this!
The best thing, as always, was doing this together – great chats were had while digging holes, holding trees, adding fertliser, newspaper and manure.
Two new features this year: Brunching & Branching!
For the first time, we had a Bring, Share & Learn Brunch: A good dozen of us shared and enjoyed homemade food in the Mourne Community Centre (big shout-out to Foróige who let us use this lovely facility!) while hearing about the background of the Skerries Open Orchards Project (SkOOP) and how it also fits in with the Skerries Tidy Towns vision!
We also added something else, thanks to Fingal County Council: we were able to give away 20 young apple trees to local residents. Together with the 23 new trees planted into our mini orchards, that makes 43 new fruit trees added to Skerries this spring. That is 43 more trees to feed pollinators, brighten our greens with blossom, and later in the year, provide fruit for all of us to enjoy.
Signs are coming
You may know what the young fruit trees in your local green are, but others may still be wondering. We plan to install small signs at each mini orchard soon, so it is clear what the trees are and who to contact if you’d like to help care for them. Below is a preview!
How you can join in
1) Join a local mini orchard guardian group
Our mini orchards thrive when a few nearby people keep an eye on them through the year, especially during dry spells.
We are currently looking for extra helpers, in particular for the Ballast Pit, the Kelly’s Bay and the Skerries Point mini orchards. If you live near any of those, or pass one of them on your way to or from the train station and could occasionally check in on the trees, we would really appreciate it if you joined the local Tree Guardians. Email sustskerries@gmail.com and we will put you in touch with the local organiser for one of those sites (or any other mini orchard).
2) Enjoy the trees (and the fruit)
The open orchards are there for everyone. When the fruit is ripe, you are warmly invited to pick a few apples, pears, plums and more. Just leave some for others too.
3) Stay in the loop
- Join the Sustainable Skerries email newsletter! Here is the sign-up link: https://sustainableskerries.eo.page/47d1m
- Follow Sustainable Skerries on Instagram and Facebook (and on top of that, do like, comment and share.. this really help us reach more people!)
Next up: Climate Conversations
We’d love to see you at our next Climate Conversations event on Wednesday. No need to sign up, just come!
