Public webinar on green energy opportunities under Just Transition
Press Release
21 January 2022
Longford County Council is inviting local stakeholders to join a public information session next week on a feasibility study that is underway in response to Just Transition.
The session will present the study scope, its objectives, and its preliminary findings to date. The online event, on Wednesday, 26 January from 5-6pm, is the first in a series of public information sessions taking place throughout 2022 on the project.
KPMG Sustainable Futures and technical partners, Ixora Energy and SLR Consulting are conducting the study on behalf of Longford County Council to explore the potential opportunities to sustain the local economy in response to the Just Transition process.
It is funded through the Just Transition Fund and the Carbon Tax Fund by the Government of Ireland.
Longford County Council engaged KPMG in late 2021, to examine how communities, industries and enterprises can develop more sustainable methods and materials in the county, generating a circular economy, in the wake of the closure of peat industrial production and peat fuelled power stations.
The closures created significant challenges for impacted employees and communities across the Midlands. The national Just Transition programme is investigating ways in which alternative enterprises, green energy and a circular economy may contribute to Ireland’s targets to cut emissions and waste while increasing resource efficiencies and local opportunities.
As part of Longford’s response to Just Transition, this study is exploring how the local community, enterprises and farmers may interact with, and benefit from, opportunities arising from Ireland’s transition to a green economy.
Stakeholders will be invited to offer feedback and help identify how the local circular economy may be shaped across Longford, particularly in those areas most impacted by peat closures.
Longford County Council invites participation from a wide range of people, including members of the local community, as well as farming, energy, environmental and business stakeholders, to get involved and have their say.
To join the webinar, please click on the following Zoom link and register, or copy the link into your browser: https://kpmgireland.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IU1HyVh7QHS9ctHWDfaqBQ
The link to register is also available on LongfordCoCo.ie.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
- Following a public tendering process in 2021, Longford County Council appointed KPMG and its technical partners to undertake a “Feasibility Study on the development of anaerobic digestion (AD) and associated circular economic activities in the vicinity of Lanesborough-Ballyleague”.
The study is reviewing renewable energy policies and supports; siting factors; social, environmental, and economic impacts; and potential sources of agricultural wastes and outputs to determine the potential role of green energies in developing the circular economy of the county.
Extensive stakeholder consultations with a wide range of community, farming, NGOs, business, and energy interests will be taking place, and this webinar is intended as the first in a series of public information sessions on the study through 2022
2. A circular economy is "a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible".
