Response to severe weather warnings starts with a Severe Weather Assessment Team call and this team puts the actions in train to prepare and manage the Council's response to the event. Where an event is predicted to cause widespread damage or disruption, the full Senior Management Team will come together to coordinate the response and manage the recovery process, supporting not only Council services but also the Health Services, Water Supplies, Electricity Networks and other major disruption.

Crisis Management Team Meeting, County Hall

In relation to Mitigation, Cork County Council set up Ireland's first Energy Agency in 1995 and since then we have focused on increasing our energy efficiency under an ISO accredited system covering all of the Council's energy use, including buildings, fleet, and public lighting where 30,000 lights will be replaced in Cork County over a 2 year period from 2022. We have carried out audits and retrofit programmes across our portfolio of buildings and continue to seek improvements to meet national targets. We are the contracting authority for replacement of roadside public lights with LEDs in all the Southwest region. The Councils Housing Directorate has retrofitted 5,000 social housing units to reduce their energy requirements. The Council also supports communities in their local actions.

Our Local Climate Office plans for and monitors the Council's own Climate Action performance. The actions are extensive and across all directorates, so coordination is critical. Carbon reduction targets have been set by government and once baselines have been established, these will form the basis for further actions. The Council adopted its first Climate Adaptation Strategy in 2019 and reports performance against the targets therein annually. Our Environmental Awareness Team delivers an extensive programme of Climate Change information with the aim of helping individuals to understand and implement the measures that we can each take to play our part in making the difference.