Cork city could become submerged in water if nothing is done to arrest global warming, the Green Party warned today ahead of a global day of action on climate change tomorrow.
With UN climate talks starting in Nairobi next week, the Greens energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said 150,000 people are already dying from climate change every year and that Ireland could see dramatic changes in the near future.
"Last month, temperatures here were between one and two degrees above average, which is now becoming a standard pattern.
Greens energy spokesman Eamon Ryan
"In Ireland, we tend to see such increases in a positive light but scientists have clearly shown the future perils of climate change unless we take immediate measures to turn down the heat," said Mr Ryan.
He said an average increase of four degrees in global temperatures would lead to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland or the Western Antarctic raising sea levels by forty feet, flooding Cork city centre and large parts of Dublin.
"By a five degree increase, crop failure would become a worldwide phenomenon threatening our very survival," Mr Ryan warned.
The party's environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said "radical changes" in Government policy were also required for the economy.
He called on the Government to implement measures to tackle emissions such as increasing public transport provision and scaling back motorway projects; arresting urban sprawl and the promoting of energy efficient renewable energy.
Tomorrow the Green Party will be taking part in a special information session on climate change at the Dublin offices of the environmental information agency, ENFO centre.
Addressing directors of elections and general election candidates ahead of the Fianna Fail ardfheis in the Citywest Hotel, Co Kildare this evening, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern defended the Government's record.
"We have - in quite a spectacular manner - decoupled the growth in our economy from the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Between 1990 and 2004 the Irish economy grew by almost 150 per cent. During the same period emissions grew by only 23 per cent," Mr Ahern said.
However, he conceded more needed to be done, saying climate change was "one of the biggest challenges facing the whole world" and that "Ireland will not be immune from the effects".
He said as wealthy state Ireland must take on a leadership role internationally but added that country's such as the US and Chine - which have opted out of the Kyoto Agreement to arrest climate change - must take up their responsibilities.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche will lead a cross-party Irish delegation to a
UN Conference on climate change in Kenya next weekend were planning for the post-Kyoto phase will be considered.
"Ireland and our EU partners will show leadership to the world community on this most important of issues which will effect the lives of hundreds of millions.
"We must get ready for the next stage of reducing our climate change emissions after 2012," Mr Ahern said.