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Community Climate Action Programme

The Community Climate Action Programme is a programme to support small and large, rural and urban communities in Waterford to take meaningful action on climate change.

UPDATE October 2025:

Phase 2 of the Community Climate Action Programme is being launched in October 2025. A total of €564,000 has been allocated to Waterford by the Department of Climate, Energy, and the Environment to support eligible climate action projects led by community groups.

Groups can apply for funding to carry out their own climate action projects. This programme will provide financial supports to implement initiatives such as community energy efficiency projects, biodiversity enhancement, waste prevention, circular economy activities, nature-based solutions and sustainable transport measures.

Applications will be accepted from Wednesday 22nd October (9am) to Wednesday 17th December (3pm) 2025.

All details are below and any questions can be answered by the Community Climate Action Officer.

Upcoming Events

Online Webinar, Thursday 23rd October 13:00-13:45.

This Lunchtime session will be an overview of the Programme and discuss the best way to plan your project and application. You can register for the online event here at this link.

Drop-in sessions:

Drop in to chat with the Community Climate Action Officer about your project and get some practical guidance on eligibility, project ideas and application.

  • Tramore Library, Wednesday 29th October 10:30-13:00
  • Dungarvan Library, Thursday 30th October 13:30-15:30

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some quick FAQs about the Programme. Full details on the Programme are available in the Briefing Note and Guidelines for Applicants document.

Eligible communities must be a not-for-profit; be located in the operational area of the Waterford City and County Council; and be registered with a PPN or connected with other collectives such as the Wheel, Tidy Towns and /or a community group with Articles of Association or a Constitution, which hold an AGM, and for which approved minutes are available.

Examples of eligible groups include local charities, sports clubs, community groups, local environmental groups, social enterprises, Resident's Associations etc.

Projects must demonstrate the delivery of national climate action at a local level. There are five programme themes and communities should try to incorporate as many themes as possible. The themes are:

  • Community & Energy
  • Travel
  • Food and waste
  • Shopping and recycling
  • Local climate and environmental action

Projects could be anything from retrofitting community buildings, installing bicycle parking, starting a community fridge, initiatives to promote biodiversity – the sky is the limit!

A brief list of all the projects funded nationally from Phase 1 (2023-2025) can be found here. These are only examples and for information purposes, they are not indicative of what a project must look like in Phase 2.

Ultimately there must be some sort of tangible – even perhaps measurable - end result which reduces or lessen the impact of climate change.

Direct climate action projects do one or more of the following - reduce/ remove greenhouse gas emissions; increase the production/ use of renewable energy; improve energy efficiency; increase climate resilience; enhance biodiversity; or contribute with the Just Transition. Awareness and education projects would be examples of indirect climate action projects. Those types of projects have a lot of merit and are needed, but they are not the focus of this funding.

Funding is available for 100% of the project and there are three project sizes eligible:

  • Small scale projects < €20,000
  • Medium scale projects €20,000 to €50,000
  • Large scale projects €51,000 to €100,000

Interested community groups should contact Waterford’s Community Climate Action Officer to discuss their project ideas. The Community Climate Action Officer is there to offer guidance to groups developing their projects and completing the application form.

To apply groups must complete the application form. The application window will be from Wednesday 22nd October (9:00am) to Wednesday 17th December (3:00pm).

There are two ways to submit an application form:

1.        Using the online application form on Submit (Recommended method), or

2.        Download the Word version of the form and submit via email/ post.

Application Form: English  or Gaeilge

Community climate action takes a variety of forms, from simple clean-ups to community energy schemes to adaptation measures such as rain planters and tree planting to ease the effects of flooding. There are wonderful examples out there of community projects which reduce or lessen the impact of climate change, and in many cases help their areas to flourish.

Please read our “Examples of community led climate action projects” document below to learn about some wonderful community led projects. This case study document contains a variety of examples and also covers tips/ hints for running projects.

Previous Updates

Update Sept 2024: 

A celebratory launch event was held for all grant recipients of the Community Climate Action Programme on Saturday, September 28th in Mount Congreve, Waterford.

The groups were welcomed by Cllr. Seánie Power, Cathaoirleach of Comeragh District Council, who commended the participants on their volunteering spirit and commitment to improvements in their own localities.
The event was a mixture of speakers and group discussions to celebrate what these projects hope to achieve in the coming months to make their communities less carbon intensive and more sustainable, but also touched on topics which would assist in running projects and getting buy-in from wider community groups.

 

Contact Details

Susan Lee – Community Climate Action Officer

Email: climateaction@waterfordcouncil.ie

Telephone: 087 279 7577

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