A level of climate change due to global warming is inevitable and Ireland must prepare it, the Minister for the Environment said today.
Publishing a report into the likely changes in Ireland's climate expected by 2050, Dick Roche said the country must adapt for a future of wetter winters, more storms and a gradual increase of 1.5 degrees in the average temperature.
The report, Climate Change - Regional Model Predictions for Ireland- describes work carried out by Met Éireann and UCD under the Community Climate Change Consortium for Ireland. It analyses probable effects of climate change on Ireland.
It found that rainfall patterns were likely to change with heavier winter rain the south west and dryer summers, particularly in the north east. Storms over Ireland from the Atlantic are also expected to become more frequent.
The report used simulations to compare the projected Irish climate between 2021 and 2060 and the period 1961-2000.
The Minister said: "Ireland will continue to play its part in international efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change."
However, there has been criticism of the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrat coalition for abandoning its plan to introduce a carbon tax amid fears from the business sector that it would increase costs without delivering adequate environmental benefits.
Ireland is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, which commits developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 (based on 1990 levels) by 2012 at the latest. The US, the world's biggest polluter walked away from this commitment in 2001.
Ireland's target is to restrict emissions to 13 per cent over 1990 levels by the end of 2012. Emissions were 25 per cent higher than this rate in 2003, down from 31 per cent in 2001.