Minister Andrew Muir addressed an event focused on tackling climate change, explaining that greater cross-community and government collaboration is required to effectively resolve the issues at stake.
He also highlighted the progress already taken by the executive to address these issues.
Muir attended the ‘Love Our Planet and Our Neighbours’ event at Queen’s University Belfast on February 12, to mark the publication of Belfast City Council’s good relations unit report, Segregation and the Environment: Breaking Down Barriers.
The report highlighted the issues facing Belfast, including the duplication of services, lack of connectivity between communities, parallel services, and buildings that need to become climate-resilient.
The report outlined that these issues are more pronounced due to the cultural divides in the city.
As a result, the report indicated that efforts required to lower the city’s carbon footprint will therefore be more expensive, relative to other cities.
In his speech, Muir informed the crowd that sustained collaboration across government, industry, and community was needed when it came to addressing the threats posed by climate change.
Climate change
Muir said: “Action on addressing climate change is a key priority for my department, but the scale and urgency of the challenge is such that it must be through collective effort.
“We are already feeling the impacts locally with severe flooding, record temperatures, the impact on Lough Neagh, and indeed as we continue the clean up after Storm Eowyn.
“Recognising the urgency of the challenges ahead, my department has taken significant steps to address it with the implementation of climate change legislation and NI’s first ever carbon budgets setting out a pathway to meeting our emissions reduction targets.
“The next steps are to get our first Climate Action Plan agreed and out to public consultation, as well as publish the Green Growth Strategy, and start rolling out schemes under the Sustainable Agriculture Programme,” he added.
According to Muir, the publication of Belfast City Council’s report serves to highlight the importance of adopting a collaborative approach to tackling climate change and adopting a just transition when it comes to the goal of net zero emissions.
The establishment of the Just Transition Commission will play a key role in this approach, according to Muir, who explained it is often those who are “most vulnerable” that are disproportionately impacted by climate change.
“Almost 27 years on from the Good Friday agreement, it is shocking that we are still suffering to such a great extent from the impacts of conflict and segregation – even when you look at those issues through a climate crisis lens,” Muir said.
“Some services are still duplicated, communities are disconnected, and physical and psychological barriers are influencing how we move around our city.
“Not only does this encourage continued division, it also prevents us from tackling the very real threat of climate change as a united and resilient community.
“We need to look at the action required to address the impacts of climate change through an interlinked and system-wide approach. This research from Belfast City Council begins to do just that,” he added.
