Issue - meetings

The Climate Commissioner for Belfast introduced Barry O’Dwyer of KPMG to the Committee.  Mr. O’Dwyer advised Members that KPMG had been working with Belfast City Council (BCC) on three individual but integrated projects which aimed to develop a robust and costed Climate Action Plan for Belfast City Council.  These were a Climate Risk Assessment (June –August 2022), a Climate Action Plan (August–October 2022) and a Climate Investment Framework (October–November 2022).

He informed Members of Northern Ireland’s and Belfast’s Changing Climate and highlighted the impact these would have for Belfast City Council, including damage to BCC infrastructure and assets, disruption and closure of services disruption of business-critical infrastructure, safety risk for staff and public, and financial loss and reputational risk.

These changes were projected to continue and intensify, with a greater chance of hotter drier summers and warmer wetter winters with more extreme weather and rising sea levels.

The project was structured around 5 individual but interconnected work packages.  Mr. O‘Dwyer went on to highlight the aims and objectives of the risk assessment and highlighted also that the Climate Change Risk assessment has a specific focus on BCC assets, infrastructure and people and that assets and infrastructure had been grouped into a number of categories.  He went on to look at the current and future risk profile and outlined the next steps for the work packages and the timelines for each work package. 

After discussion, the Members noted the contents of the presentation.