With climate change already being experienced in many countries worldwide there is growing acceptance that significant, far-reaching actions are required to minimise its impacts. To effectively respond to the challenge the Irish Government, under its Climate Action Plan published in June 2019, committed the State to achieve ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction levels by 2030 in line with legally binding EU commitments, with national net zero emissions committed to by 2050. Within the Climate Action Plan public sector bodies, including local authorities, are required to lead in the delivery of fundamental changes in how they operate and in how they provide public services to support State ambitions regarding climate action. The local government sector, as a key public sector body, therefore has a crucial role to play in national climate action commitments. Employing the use of a detailed questionnaire and case studies across all local authorities nationally, the aim of this research was to quantify the role of local authorities in delivering climate change actions between 2011 and 2018. Whilst the results from this report represent only a snapshot in time of local authority achievements with respect to climate action, the research finds that the local government sector has been proactive in many areas, providing a range of services to the public, including critical infrastructure, flood risk management and water resources, as well as nature-based solutions and public engagement, each of which have delivered positive climate actions. This is in addition to publication of a Local Authority Adaptation Strategy across each local authority in September 2019, committing each local authority to specific adaptation targets between 2019 and 2024. Taken together, the findings show that local authorities prioritise different needs and therefore implement different climate actions based on prevailing climate change risks in their jurisdictions. Specifically, in the context of critical infrastructure, between 2011 and 2017 innovations in local authority energy efficiencies prevented over 60,000 tonnes of CO2 from being produced – equivalent to the CO2 emissions produced by approximately 11,000 Irish homes annually. In addition, the National Public Lighting Upgrade Project being advanced by the sector is expected to avoid 31,000 tonnes of CO2 annually once completed, saving the equivalent of the annual CO2 produced by more than 5,600 homes. Efforts to mitigate climate change have also been achieved in electric vehicle and cycling infrastructure, with some local authorities reporting 15% of their vehicle fleet as electric, and more than 260 electric vehicle charging points for the public available on local authority property at 2018 year end. Cycling infrastructure also continues to expand across local authorities, with approximately 14,000 bicycling parking spaces installed by the local authority sector nationally and more than 1,500km of segregated cycle lanes across local authorities at 2018 year end. Where flood risk management and water resources are concerned, local authorities collaborated with the Office of Public Works on 21 major flood defence schemes and delivered a further 228 smaller flood defence schemes between 2014 and 2018, with local authorities investing approximately ¤12.4 million of funding towards flood defences. Local authorities also spent approximately ¤101 million in responding to emergencies following extreme weather events between 2014 and 2018 when the impacts of extreme weather events arose. Local authorities also demonstrated significant commitment towards nature-based climate change solutions. They planted approximately 74,000 trees between 2017-2018 and implemented a significant number of nature-based policies with specific climate actions, including policies dealing with invasive alien species, managing trees and urban woodlands, developing green infrastructure and public open spaces and parks, and reducing pesticide usage. Many of these policies are supplementary measures, which local authorities have advanced in addition to their statutory requirements under biodiversity management. Finally, the findings show that, through public engagement across those actions that can impact upon climate change, local authorities provided over 2,400 allotments and 97 community gardens for public use in 2018. Moreover, they supported 884 towns and neighbourhoods in 2018 through the Tidy Towns programme, many of which undertook specific climate actions such as increasing biodiversity and tree planting. The study highlighted that many local authorities are also training employees, communities and social housing residents to reduce their climate change impact and save energy as part of the sector’s commitment to encourage public action. The local government sector is expected to play a critical role under the government’s Climate Action Plan, which sets ambitious and binding climate action targets for all public sector bodies by 2030. These results act as a baseline measure, highlighting existing sectoral efforts regarding climate change. The growing importance placed on achieving measurable outcomes under the Climate Action Plan for all public service bodies means that it would prove useful for the local authority sector to begin to examine a standardised way of measuring, recording and reporting climate change actions on a frequent basis. Only then can it begin to demonstrate in a consistent, transparent and efficient manner the range of climate actions local authorities are developing, supporting national climate action efforts in the process.