Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Alderman McCoubrey and Councillors R. Brooks, Doherty, S. Douglas and McCabe.

The minutes of the meeting of 13th June were taken as read and signed as correct.

            No declarations of interest were recorded.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1       At the meeting of the Climate & City Resilience Committee on 21st of June 2024, it was agreed that a retrofit workshop would be arranged for elected members in September 2024, with expert members of the Belfast Retrofit Delivery Hub invited to attend. The Committee agreed that a draft agenda would be considered by the Committee at its meeting in August.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       To review and approve the proposed agenda and suggest amendments as required.

3.0       Main Report

            Belfast Retrofit Delivery Hub takes a consortium approach to catalysing retrofit activity across the public, commercial and private building sectors in Belfast. Belfast City Council’s Climate Team convenes and supports the Hub’s activities as part of the wider support the team provides for the Belfast Community Planning Partnership. Progress on the Hub’s activities is reported regularly to the Climate and City Resilience Committee (and to the Resilience and Sustainability Board) with their most recent meeting generating a request for a retrofit themed workshop for elected members.

            Proposed approach

            The Retrofit Hub and the Council’s UP2030 team recently ran a joint mapping exercise event with retrofit experts to help visualise the need and opportunities for a neighbourhood retrofit programme, focusing on the UP2030 pilot area which includes the Linen Quarter and adjacent communities living in Sandy Row, Donegall Pass, the Market and Barrack Street. This area was selected as significant groundwork has already been done with communities to help identify what a net zero community might look like, in order to develop a methodology that can be rolled out to other parts of the city.

            The activity used data from the Local Area Energy Plan to create maps that visualised existing buildings’ energy performance rating, building type and tenure, as well as retrofit measures already in place, to help participants understand the challenges and opportunities around retrofit.

            The Climate Team propose to repeat this approach drawing on Member’s diverse range of expertise and their working knowledge of community needs while also enabling Members to explore what a retrofit neighbourhood approach might look like when applied to real life settings across different building types and tenures in the UP2030 area. The event will be supported by Retrofit Hub members with expertise across the various building types, technologies and with experience of working with communities on retrofit and fuel poverty. The proposed agenda is shown below:

1.      Welcome & event outline (3 hour event). Date to be confirmed.

2.      Introduction to retrofit – Climate Team members and sectoral leads from the Retrofit Hub outline the main concepts, technologies, challenges and opportunities:

·        Public sector buildings

·        Commercial sector

·        Residential

3.      Mapping exercise – using detailed maps and a series of questions with support from expert Hub members, work in groups to explore case study sub-areas of the UP2030 area:

·        Public buildings – e.g. Cecil Ward building

·        Commercial buildings

·        Residential – selection of streets

4.      Group feedback – group leaders feed main findings back to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

            The Monitoring, Learning and Reporting Officer reminded the Committee that, in December 2020, Belfast had launched a Resilience Strategy, a framework to safeguard the city against shocks and stresses which could threaten its safety and stability over coming years.

            The development of the Strategy had been led by the Belfast Resilience Commissioner, who had worked alongside a range of key partners to inform its development. She outlined that Belfast had become a member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network and had been able to draw upon valuable experience, insights and resources to help develop the Resilience Strategy.

            The Committee was advised that the Strategy had been developed as a City document, to be delivered in partnership with external partners across the city. She explained that there had been significant progress made on many of the ambitions outlined within it, with regular reporting to the Climate and City Resilience Committee and the Belfast Agenda Resilience and Sustainability Board on ongoing climate activity.

            The Members were advised that the Ambitions document comprised 30 projects designed to transition the city.  The Monitoring, Learning and Reporting Officer reported that the Resilience and Sustainability Board oversaw the delivery and implementation of the Resilience Strategy. The Board had supported the embedding and delivery of sustainable development and resilience across all Belfast Agenda priorities, linking across Boards as appropriate, and reporting on progress to the Community Planning Partnership. Since 2020, when the Ambitions document had been developed, those projects had since progressed and new projects had emerged across the city. The Board’s first Annual Review was intended to capture the progress of all of the projects which had supported the transition.

            Each Board member had completed a template which captured the aims of the project, what had been delivered and the next steps. The template had also been completed for new projects, delivered by board members organisations, but not highlighted in the Ambitions document. The review had been structured around the updated Belfast Agenda (Our Planet) so that it aligned with current ambitions:

·        Re-naturing the city and increasing resilience to climate change;

·        Creating a sustainable circular economy; and

·        Innovating to net zero.

The report had also highlighted the UN Sustainable Development Goals which were covered through the list of projects.

            After discussion, the Committee:

                            i.          noted that the update gathered together projects currently taking place in the city that ultimately aimed to support the transition to an inclusive, resilient and low emission economy;

                          ii.          agreed that the document would be issued to all Members and published on the Council website; and

                         iii.          agreed to hold a future meeting under the theme of sustainable transport/Electric Vehicles, with Translink to be invited.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

            To provide an update on the Belfast Net Zero Pathfinder project which is de-risking two strategic projects to decarbonise the built environment in Belfast: a heat network and a solar PV project.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       To note the contents of the report, specifically that:

                                          I.          the one year project commenced on 1st June 2024 and will be implemented over in partnership with the Energy Systems Catapult;

                                         II.          the project will de-risk and progress two priority projects (heat network and a solar PV project) from the Belfast Local Energy Action Plan (LAEP) and Queen’s Island Decarbonisation Plan;

                                       III.          a Project Assessment is currently underway (to scope the projects) with a market readiness assessment and business model development due to start in August;

                                       IV.          Alongside this work, two separate projects are progressing to determine the potential for adoption of rooftop solar PV and to provide Council with an understanding of the technical and commercial factors surrounding the introduction of a low carbon heat network in Belfast; and

                                        V.          Shared Island funding has also been secured with Cork under Community Climate Action Fund (CCAF) Strand 1A to install solar PV on Donegall Pass Community Centre.

3.0       Main Report

3.1       Context

3.2       The Belfast Local Energy Action Plan (LAEP) and Queen’s Island Decarbonisation Plan (developed by the Energy Systems Catapult with a local energy consortium) were presented to elected members in April 2024. The LAEP included five outline priority decarbonisation projects as cost effective and deliverable interventions that could deliver significant energy savings and emission reductions while also unlocking growth and job opportunities across the city. These comprised: domestic retrofit, heat network, solar PV on public buildings, solar car port with EV charging and oil boiler to heat pump transition. There were also two modelled scenarios for Queen’s Island (a Heat network and Solar Photovoltaic Carports).

3.3       Members gave approval to establish a LAEP delivery group to support the delivery of decarbonisation projects across the city; and establish a community of practice to ensure that the data generated by the modelling is fully utilised by key stakeholders across the City. This work is underway and a report will be brought back to update elected members in due course.

3.4       Members were also notified in March 2024 that funding (£150K) had been secured from the Innovate UK Net Zero Living Pathfinders competition to de-risk two of the priority projects identified by the city's LAEP and the Decarbonisation Plan for Queens Island area of Belfast. The two projects are a heat network and a solar PV project which are assessed to have the greatest potential to reduce emissions from the city whilst also delivering significant socio-economic benefits for local communities.

3.5       The Belfast Net Zero Pathfinder project enables Belfast to act immediately upon delivery of the LAEP and QIDP to progress two projects using a whole systems approach to decarbonise a local area. The project commenced on 1^st June 2024 and will  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1       The purpose of this report is to provide Members with an update in relation to the Shared Island Initiative, and the role of officers in securing funding opportunities for the Council and also promoting these opportunities with organisations across the City.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       It is recommended that the Committee notes:

·        that an online information session was held for local organisations on 22 July 2024, with presentations on the Shared Island Initiative, Shared Island Civic Society Fund and Reconciliation Fund provided by officials from the Shared Island Unit (SIU) and Department of Foreign Affairs (DfA), the presentation slides are provided at Appendix A for Members information;

·        two successful bids between Belfast City Council and Cork City Council under the Community Climate Action Fund (CCAF) Strand 1A; and

·        that local organisations have recently been successful in received funding under the Shared Island Creative Youth Partnerships funding.

3.0       Main Report

3.1       The Committee will recall that it has received two presentations and updates on the Shared Island Initiative, in June 2022 and February 2023, delivered by the SIU which operates within the Department of the Taoiseach. As well as these presentations the Committee has received updates on Belfast City Council Shared Island projects in September 2023 and February 2024.

            Shared Island initiative

3.2       The Shared Island initiative is a whole of Government priority to engage with all communities and political traditions to build consensus around a shared future on the island, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement. The Shared Island initiative is backed by the Government’s Shared Island Fund, with at least €1 billion out to 2030 ring-fenced for delivery of all-island investment commitments and objectives in the Programme for Government and revised National Development Plan 2021-30; and informed by a programme of engagement with people across the island through the Shared Island Dialogue series and a comprehensive policy research programme, which provides a stronger evidence base and analysis of the island of Ireland across a range of economic, environmental and social areas.

            Shared Island Civic Society Fund Round 3 – Online Information Session

3.3       Following the announcement by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DfA) of a third round of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund at the end of June. Officers engaged with departmental officials to arrange an online information session for Belfast organisations to provide guidance to local organisations on the process for applying to this fund, which closed on 2 August 2024.

3.4       The information in relation to this funding opportunity and online session was also circulated to all elected members to disseminate across their local community networks. Allowing for the holiday period this session was well attended with a number of local organisations represented. During this session officials from the DfA and SIU delivered presentations on the Shared Island Initiative, Shared Island Civic Society Fund and the Reconciliation Fund.

            Community Climate Action Fund Strand 1A

3.5       The Committee is also invited to note the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5a

            The information contained in the report associated with the following item is restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

      Resolved – That the Committee agrees to exclude the members of the press and public from the meeting during discussion of the following item as, due to the nature of the item, there would be a disclosure of exempt information as described in Section 42(4) and Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            The Members were also reminded that the content of ‘restricted’ reports and any discussion which took place during closed session must be treated as ‘confidential information’ and that no such information should be disclosed to the public as per Paragraph 4.15 of the Code of Conduct.  

            The Strategic Policy and Planning Officer provided the Committee with an overview of the projects which the Council was involved in under the Shared Island Funding Initiative.

            Noted.