NILGA, the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, is the representative body for district councils in Northern Ireland. NILGA represents and promotes the interests of our 11 local authorities and is supported by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland.
Councils in Northern Ireland have a limited set of powers and functions, including development planning, community planning, local economic development, environmental services and sustainable development. Councils in Northern Ireland have no responsibility for roads, public transport, regeneration, social housing, education or social care.
This page is designed to give you a flavour of climate action underway in Northern Ireland local government.
COP26 is the 2021 edition of the United Nations annual climate change conference. COP stands for Conference of the Parties. Every year, world leaders meet to make important decisions about how humanity tackles the climate change. In November, the UK will host this year’s meeting – COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference. COP26 will be a decisive moment – climate change is a clear and present danger to all people and our planet. The real-world consequences of rising temperatures are already all too visible.
COP26 is the biggest summit the UK has ever hosted and is the most significant climate event since COP21, the 2015 United Nations climate conference which resulted in the Paris Agreement. NILGA is participating in COP26 in Glasgow on 11th November 2021, in both the ‘Blue Zone’ and ‘Green Zone’ (details below).
We can no longer afford to wait to act against the threat of climate change. We must work together to protect our planet and people to ensure a greener, more resilient future for us all.
The Together for our Planet campaign is building momentum for positive action on climate change across UK society, ahead of the COP26 Summit.
With the support of the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, NILGA is facilitating three regional roadshow events in Northern Ireland, aligned with the Presidency Programme for COP26.
The Regional Roadshow events, taking place in Northern Ireland during the two weeks of the COP26 conference, form a key part of this campaign.
Aligned with the COP26 Presidency Programme and ‘Green Zone’ events taking place in Glasgow in November, NILGA is supporting the following Northern Ireland events:
Various venues across Belfast
RE[act] is a completely new festival, which seeks to inspire a more sustainable Belfast. It takes place at the same time as COP26, and and is aligned in thinking with the main COP26 themes, to help integrate Northern Ireland into the global conversation.
The keynote address, from global expert Carol Lemmens, is how to create a more circular city, moving from use and dispose to redesign and repurpose. A series of events then aims to help re-imagine everything we do, from food to fashion, from transport to the built environment, from finance to community empowerment.
SmartEnergy Conference 2nd November - ICC Belfast and online
This conference took place on 2nd November 2021, looking forward to a decade of ambition for low carbon technologies. With Northern Ireland in the process of deciding its future energy strategy the conference heard nationally and internationally significant speakers discuss the role innovation will play in achieving the UK’s ‘net zero’ requirement.
