KILKEE/LOOP HEAD DECARBONISATION ZONE

KILKEE/LOOP HEAD PENINSULA HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS THE DECARBONISATION ZONE (DZ) FOR CLARE COUNTY COUNCIL. A DZ IS A SPATIAL AREA IDENTIFIED BY THE LOCAL AUTHORITY, IN WHICH A RANGE OF CLIMATE MITIGATION, ADAPTATION AND BIODIVERSITY MEASURES AND ACTION OWNERS ARE IDENTIFIED TO ADDRESS LOCAL LOW CARBON ENERGY, GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND CLIMATE NEEDS TO CONTRIBUTE TO NATIONAL CLIMATE ACTION TARGETS.

The Kilkee/Loop Head Peninsula DZ includes the 10 electoral districts of the three most western parishes of County Clare – Kilballyowen, Carrigaholt and Kilkee with a combined population of 2,891. The peninsula is part of the West Clare Municipal District (West Clare MD), which is the largest MD in County Clare. The area’s socioeconomic and physical environmental characteristics have been reviewed and identified as an appropriate fit for the defined DZ criteria. The Kilkee/Loop Head Peninsula DZ is considered to be an appropriate demonstration area and testbed for rural decarbonisation measures to be adopted in other rural areas as well as scaled up across County Clare.

What are the key issues that the LACAP should focus on for rural communities in Clare?

Total GHG emissions within Kilkee/Loop Head Peninsula DZ for 2018 equate to approximately 136,185 tCO2e. 2018 has been purposefully chosen to align with Ireland’s national targets which are set against a 2018 baseline year. The main sources of emissions within the Kilkee/Loop Head Decarbonisation Zone area are agriculture (67%), Land Use, Landuse Change and Forestry (LULUCF) (18%), residential (10%), and transport (4%). The Commercial and Public Sector, and Waste sectors account for the remaining emissions.

Although agriculture inherently represents the largest share of emissions it is imperative that focus is also placed on reducing emissions from all sectors while ensuring that both the social and economic benefits of climate action are maximised in the locality.

How can the Council tailor the implementation of the DZ to support residents and businesses while also protecting Loop Heads landscape, amenities, ecology and rural economy?

Climate Action In Practice

The Loop Head Peninsula has already been a source of innovative climate action initiatives. In January 2023 it was named winner of the IPB Pride of Place Climate Action Special Award for a regenerative farming experiment named Hemp4Soil, which explored the potential to improve soil quality and biodiversity while also creating alternative sustainable income streams for farms on Loop Head. The project involved ten local farmers who, in conjunction with the Department for Agriculture, Fisheries and the Marine and local scientific and biodiversity experts, explored how growing hemp on the land could not only improve the overall quality of the soil and benefit local biodiversity, but could also provide sustainable income streams to the farmers in the future.

What scope is there to increase biodiversity in the Kilkee/Loop Head Peninsula