McGloughlin, Jackie S. and Sweeney, John (2011) Multi-level climate policies in Ireland. Irish Geography, 44 (1). pp. 137-150. ISSN 0075-0778

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Abstract

Global greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise even though there are binding international agreements and national commitments for emission reductions. While some states and local governments around the world are taking action to reduce emissions and adapt to the inevitable climate change impacts, overall collective goals are not being realised and this implementation gap may be due to multi-level governance failures. To date there has been limited research of Irish climate measures with a significant gap at the subnational level. This research explores whether city and county councils are the lowest, most effective, level for climate change actions in Ireland through a nationwide survey and a review of all relevant government policies at local, regional and national levels. This research reveals that the local climate measures are isolated best practice examples rather than being widespread throughout the country. This study concludes that there is limited vertical integration among Irish government levels as evidenced by three things: survey responses from local authority staff members, limited incorporation of higher-level objectives into local policy documents, and limited details in national level policies as to local level implementation. Similar to municipalities in other countries, Irish local authorities face challenges which are hindering their advancement of climate measures. If the higher-level collective goals are to be achieved in Ireland, the national government will need to drive forward the climate change agenda with formalised commitments and mandatory local implementation.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is a preprint of an article submitted for consideration in Irish Geography © 2011 [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Irish Geography is available online at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00750778.2011.615984. This article is written within the framework of the CoCoAdapt project 2007-CCRP- 2.2.6 and supported by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the STRIVE programme 2007-2013. Thanks go to the local authority staff members for their cooperation and input into this research. The authors also wish to thank Professor Mark Boyle, Ronan Foley, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the draft of this article.
Keywords:	climate change; governance; subsidiarity; environmental policy;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
Item ID:	2885
Depositing User:	Prof. John Sweeney
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2011 16:35
Journal or Publication Title:	Irish Geography
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Refereed:	No
Funders:	Environment Protection Agency
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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