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Climate change
Our Climate Fund supports internal projects that will help us meet goals we've set out in our Climate Action Plan.
Projects bring together various skills to design and embed sustainability in our own work.
Projects focus on mitigation and adaptation actions and might aim to:
Our BCC Climate Fund finances these current projects in Belfast:
We funded these projects which are now completed:
The project assesses the carbon and biodiversity of Cave Hill Country Park including opportunity mapping for climate and biodiversity benefits. This work also involved Gorse Removal, reducing Climate risks from wildfires for example.
The project works are seasonally-dependent. A further phase of this project will be completed in 2026.
The project is an assessment of species rich grassland and wildflower meadow sites, including carbon benefits at four sites in Belfast.
The project works are seasonally-dependent. A further phase of this project will be completed in 2026.
A benchmarking and best practice project to review, identify and select a best-fit pilot scheme to improve recycling rates in council owned street litter bins.
According to the Carbon Trust, Scope 3 emissions can account for 70 to 80 per cent of a typical council’s total footprint.
This exercise will allow Belfast City Council to assess scope 3 emissions which can then inform policy and practice to reduce emissions in the future. The project aims to make clear the volume of carbon across a range of suppliers along with costs, whilst not directly reducing CO2e the report is highlighting areas that should be considered for reductions. The data is being used to create a sustainable procurement policy and single use plastics policy. We have shared learnings internally and with other councils in Northern Ireland.
The project is completed.
This work involves energy audits of four council buildings:
We identified these buildings as the highest energy users within our estate, along with metering, monitoring and targeting design works.
This dual phase project is in phase 2 of implementation.
Phase 1 delivered these outcomes
The ongoing Alleyways Project funds schemes across Belfast to support existing community groups:
This project is a cross-departmental approach to deliver tree planting across Belfast.
Within the 2023 strategy, there are 37 targets, priorities and actions to ensure a thriving, resilient urban forest is a key part of Belfast’s future, supporting mitigation, adaptation and renaturing goals within the city.
The strategy aims to increase overall tree canopy cover in the city, from 18.6 per cent to 30 per cent (set by IUCN Urban Alliance) taking in woodlands, hedges and trees, through increased planting and managing existing stock risks, disease and extreme weather.
Since the initial focus on tree management began in December 2020, 161,240 trees and 3,599 metres of new hedgerows have been established, with a longer-term pipeline of planting established by the new woodland creation team. Additionally, 6,285 citizens have engaged in the programme across the city, through schools, sports and community organisations. This includes delivery of the Forest in a Box Scheme. Belfast was awarded Tree Cities of the World status in 2025, recognising leading work in urban forestry.
Funding for wetland and grassland restoration Funding was provided for works in Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park and Lagan Meadows (Clement Wilson). This project is ongoing.
The aim of this ongoing work is to measure and analyse the carbon intensity of waste flows and management across our various sites.
Through better micro level data, we can:
Belfast’s Resilience Assessment identified various shocks and stresses for the city, improving our knowledge of existing and emerging climate change risks. We published our Climate Plan in December 2020 and laid out our priorities and goals for protection and resilience of our city. Our main priority is to make Belfast a sustainable city for the future as we transition to a net-zero economy.
Our plan has 30 transformative interventions intended to have a positive impact on Belfast. The plan relies on collaboration with city partners with a focus on children and young people and their central role in climate action.
We completed these projects in Belfast.
The project's aim was to scope and cost a potential large scale tree nursery at an existing council site.
Key to the project was examining the sustainability of establishing and running a large scale tree nursery to assist with our Tree Establishing Strategy.
This project provided infrastructure at our Waste Transfer Station to recycle furniture from bulky waste collections. This reduced waste of potentially reusable products and reduced landfill and landfill emissions.
This project provided secure storage lockers at three household recycling centres to collect unwanted laptops. We transferred the laptops to contractors for refurbishment and reuse through Community Services and Age Friendly.
The project:
The project involved consulting and developing our Single Use Plastic (SUP) Policy.
This included:
baseline information on existing SUP use
an outline of potential reduction initiatives across the council, and
development of a policy and roll-out programme.
Belfast City Council approved the SUP Policy.
This project provided free sustainable, reusable period products to social supermarkets, foodbanks and agreed community and voluntary sector partners in Belfast.
The aims were to:
Thirty one groups participated in the project, with 4,109 products given out in Belfast. This has diverted 1.833 tons from landfill and 36,570.1 kg per annum in carbon savings. The products last between five and ten years. We have added social value for people facing period poverty, allowing them to choose household needs over sanitary needs).
This upgrading project included:
The target reduction of the solar film was expected to be up to 65 per cent through the maintenance of cooler air temperatures and lead to reduced electricity consumption for chilling. Since the installation of the solar film, maximum temperature in the same areas did not exceed 24 celsius, previously it was 37 celsius. The metering data has confirmed that a much-reduced sized chiller can be used at the Waterfront, benefitting the site by reducing the capital expenditure on the replacement chillers, reducing chilling load and associated electricity use, and reduced carbon emissions from the chiller. The meter in place can monitor the performance and management of the chiller, targeting efficiencies.
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