Published: Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Annual Review 2024 - Preparing for Ireland's Changing Climate
The Climate Change Advisory Council’s Annual Review of adaptation and resilience, highlights how climate change is no longer solely a future problem, it is already adversely impacting society.
Since the last annual review, globally, temperatures have exceeded 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times for 12 straight months for the first time since records began. In Ireland we have seen notable extreme events including the flooding in Midleton last Autumn, the extremely wet winter and spring, and the marine heatwave around our shores in summer 2023. These highlight just some of the ways that our changing climate is already negatively affecting citizens and key sectors, with ever increasing threats to both lives and livelihoods. Both the Midleton flooding and wet winter and spring have been formally linked to our historical and ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases in rapid attribution studies.
The Climate Change Advisory Council has said that while we must continue to relentlessly pursue climate neutrality, Ireland must now develop and deliver measures to adapt to our changing climate with the same urgency.
Commenting Professor Peter Thorne, Chair of the Adaptation Committee said, “On the reduction of emissions we must fully play our part in the wider global commitment to achieve climate neutrality. However, ensuring we adapt to and are resilient to the changes in our climate is an area that we alone are responsible for. It is the core mission of any government to protect its citizens from harm and it is way past time to start taking concrete steps at speed and scale to increase our resilience to the impacts of current and future climate changes.”
“The new National Adaptation Framework is a welcome development as it provides an indicative roadmap of how adaptation could be done. We must now urgently move from aspirational words on paper to real actions that are financed and implemented if we are to avoid repeated heartbreaking events such as those from Midleton last year.”
The Council has made a number of specific recommendations within its review that will help to provide a consistent approach to the delivery of actions required by national and local government, as well as semi-state agencies.
Peter Thorne, explained, “The new sectoral adaptation plans currently under development offer an opportunity for a step-change in ambition but they require adequate and ring-fenced annual budgets and proactive monitoring for effectiveness. To support this, we need to build and better retain technical capacity across all sectors, including local government, with a clear programme for staff resourcing and training by the end of 2025.”
“Commercial semi-state agencies and regulators also need to fund and prioritise projects to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure such as ports, railways, the electrical grids and key roads. Failure to deliver this infrastructure would have adverse and complex impacts that would cascade across all sectors of society."
Finalisation and implementation of the long-awaited coastal management plan to build resilience in coastal areas and communities, is another area the Council has said needs urgent delivery. This must consider the twin threats of sea level rise and
coastal erosion. The Council has also recommended that there is a need to better understand already occurring climate damages through a national register to track the costs and impacts and improve policy responses.
Reflecting upon the Annual Review Professor Thorne concluded, “The delivery of proactive adaptation actions will help us to prepare for rapidly emerging risks at home and support our ability to be resilient to risks abroad that may impact us such as to trade or food supply. While this requires substantial initial investment, over time this will ultimately save money and offer numerous co-benefits.”
“We remain, as most countries do, well behind the curve in terms of planning for and resourcing the necessary actions to ensure our resilience to ongoing climate change. It will be critical for governments for decades to come to prioritise climate change adaptation measures, with substantial and sustained resourcing, to protect our citizens from the increasing threat of climate change.”
The Council's annual review publication 'Preparing for Ireland's Changing Climate' is available at the following link: Annual Review 2024 - Preparing for Ireland's Changing Climate
If you have any questions or are seeking further comment, please do not hesitate to contact: Shane Finnegan (shane@aikenpr.com or 00447764534565) or Seamus Donnelly (seamus@aikenpr.com or 00447729556480).