Galway City jumps on the net zero emissions bandwagon Ireland’s Galway City receives funding from the NetZeroCities pilot programme to make buildings more energy efficient in its Westside area. Climate Change and Environment Energy © weerapat1003/stock.adobe.com A EUR 1 million grant from the EU-funded NetZeroCities Pilot Cities Programme is providing residents in Galway City’s Westside area with access to a one-stop shop to help them retrofit their homes. Galway City is the only Irish city taking part in the pilot programme supporting European cities in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency in buildings. Galway City is part of the Northern and Western Region of Ireland, in which many areas still use oil and solid fuels as their primary sources of heat. Today, residential buildings in Galway City produce more than 40 % of the city’s carbon emissions. The Galway City Northern and Western Regional Assembly and Galway City Council applied to the pilot programme to increase retrofitting across Westside, an area of Galway City with an above-average number of high-energy users and energy-inefficient buildings. The NetZeroCities programme not only has the potential to reduce residents’ heating bills and carbon footprint, it also points the way to the development of similar programmes for other parts of the Northern and Western Region. A hub for inefficient housing With the funding received from NetZeroCities, the Galway City project participants are jointly developing strategies and services to reduce carbon emissions from home heating in Galway City’s Westside area. Other initiatives include the creation of the Warm Home Hub Westside, a one-stop shop in Westside to advise residents on how to retrofit their energy-inefficient homes. The hub will be managed by the project partner Galway Energy Co-operative and offer information sessions and consultations with contractors. The aim is to encourage 250 households in Westside to begin their retrofitting project. A portion of the funding will be used to provide training courses to build a highly skilled workforce that can meet the retrofit demand in Galway. As reported in ‘Irish Tech News’, the NetZeroCities programme will therefore support the creation of a Retrofit Accelerator Training Programme “to incentivise 60 personnel to undertake retrofitting training, improve existing retrofit courses, and develop guidelines for contractors to monitor the performance of retrofits.” A steering group will also be formed to identify Galway’s retrofitting challenges and fund solutions, and a report will be prepared on the project’s learnings for dissemination to other Irish regions interested in replicating the work. Through the above actions, NetZeroCities (Accelerating cities’ transition to net zero emissions by 2030) is helping Galway City meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7 % per year in Westside from 2021 to 2030. Galway City Mayor Eddie Hoare comments on the pilot programme: “As well as guiding households through their retrofitting journey, the Net Zero Cities team will be working with the construction industry to build capacity in the sector. This pilot project and the funding received through the EU Net Zero Cities Pilot Cities Programme provides Galway City with an excellent opportunity to test innovative approaches to reducing carbon emissions, in line with Galway City Council’s Climate Action Plan.” For more information, please see: NetZeroCities project website Keywords NetZeroCities, Galway, Westside, carbon, energy, emissions, city, retrofit, retrofitting
