Belfast
Local investment & global opportunities
Lead Organisation
Belfast City Council
Location
Northern Ireland
How Belfast is creating local investment and buy-in for retrofit and renewables, while exploring global innovation opportunities.
Belfast is well placed to benefit from the Net Zero transition, with a growing base of innovative companies.
With funding from Innovate UK, Belfast City Council worked with Energy Systems Catapult to restart stalled solar PV and heat network projects by tackling commercial and stakeholder barriers.
A new whole-life evaluation tool that clearly shows potential revenue streams was key in building investor confidence and unblocking decision-making. Community engagement is led by partners like Northern Ireland Community Energy and Sustainable NI, while a Retrofit Delivery Hub connects public and private sectors to support local job creation.
Through an innovation twinning programme, the city has built a formal partnership with Sejong, South Korea’s administrative capital, with a Memorandum of Understanding focused on shared challenges like decarbonisation. Net Zero Living support is also enabling local firm Flax & Teal to work with partners in India to develop digital resilience tools.
Find out more
If you are interested in learning how to transform your community, town or city, then read the Blended Finance Regional Funds for Net Zero report. If you would like to speak to someone about this project, contact the Net Zero Living team.