The Climate and City Resilience Committee of Belfast City Council met on Thursday, 11th September 2025, to discuss public body reporting, presentations from the Shared Island Unit and the Centre for Cross Border Cooperation, and requests to present at a future meeting. A training workshop from Sustainable NI was scheduled to follow the meeting.

Public Body Reporting

The committee was scheduled to discuss the information that will be submitted to the DAERA ¹ Public Body Reporting platform by 31st October 2025. Section 42 of the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 requires DAERA to make regulations that place climate change reporting duties on specified public bodies. The first report required under the regulations is the mitigation report, which must be submitted by 31st October 2025.

There are two types of reports that the council will be required to provide: climate change mitigation reports and climate change adaptation reports. The mitigation report is due by 31st October 2025, and must include:

• A statement, in respect of each of the three preceding financial years, of the amounts and the sources of the council's greenhouse gas emissions.
• A statement of the council's proposals and policies for reducing those amounts and otherwise for mitigating the effects of climate change in the exercise of its functions.
• A statement of the time-scales for implementing those proposals and policies (short, medium and long-term actions).
• An assessment of the progress made towards implementing the proposals and policies set out in any previous climate change mitigation report.

The amount of greenhouse gases that the council emits annually is calculated using meter readings from gas and electricity usage. These figures then have a carbon factor applied to them to create an estimate for the council's greenhouse gas equivalent (CO2e). The DAERA reporting platform will require public bodies to input their raw data. It will then apply a carbon figure to this within their system. Belfast City Council has mirrored this process using already published Welsh and Scottish models, and emission factors from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) ² to obtain the council's scope 1 and 2 emissions figures. The Climate Action Plan (CAP) is a combined mitigation and adaptation plan. For the purpose of public body reporting, the short-term mitigation actions will be submitted to DAERA as the council's proposals and policies for carbon reduction. The short-term actions are listed below:

• Develop and launch an accessible climate data platform to track progress on delivering climate adaptation and mitigation actions.
• Develop a sustainable/low carbon procurement policy and supplier guidance documents to support a transition to an inclusive, net zero and resilient future.
• Develop a sustainable food policy for the council that addresses waste, sourcing, packaging, emissions measurement and an events protocol.
• Complete a second phase of building energy audits at Andersonstown Leisure Centre, Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre, Templemore Avenue Leisure Centre, Brook Leisure Centre and the Waterfront Hall.
• Develop the integration of whole life carbon assessments as standard practice in the Capital Programme.
• Launch a phased metering and retrofitting programme across Belfast City Council's top energy users based on the findings of the building level audits of Adelaide Exchange, Cecil Ward Building, City Hall and Duncrue Complex.
• Scope out a strategy to increase renewable and low-carbon energy use through corporate power purchase agreements.
• Review the Business Travel Policy and develop the Sustainable Staff Travel Plan to encourage modal shift, active travel and more fuel-efficient driving for council staff.
• Through sustainable procurement, aim to use local suppliers to the council to reduce miles travelled within the confines of procurement legislation and Local Government Act restrictions.
• Conduct a commercial assessment of council land suitable for installing low emission vehicle (LEV) charging points.
• Commence work on repurposing staff parking spaces for cycle racks and integrate appropriate facilities to support active travel e.g. shower and changing facilities.
• Initiate an internal council-level Waste Management Plan which aligns with the Waste Management Hierarchy and with an emphasis on green waste.
• Continue to progress the proposal for a single-use plastics policy for the council.
• Develop a mechanism to track and report on internal council-generated waste.

Internally, actions will be monitored and reported to the Climate Programme Board. A progress report will be developed for CMT ³ and the Climate and City Resilience Committee on an annual basis to report on progress against each action, and the council's emissions figures. Information collected will all be available on the Data Platform. The committee was asked to approve the short-term actions to be reported to DAERA as the required 'proposals and policies' to mitigate against the effects of climate change, and to approve the amounts and sources of the council's greenhouse gas emissions to be reported to DAERA for the past 3 years.

Presentations

The committee was scheduled to receive presentations from the Shared Island Unit and the Centre for Cross Border Cooperation.

Requests to Present at a Future Meeting

Councillor Tara Brooks was scheduled to raise requests from the Three Sisters Gardening Community Group and Community Garden Support to present at a future meeting.