The arrival of Storm Betty across the country yesterday reminds us that the climate is changing and extreme events are becoming more common. It is impossible to tie specific events to climate change - but science says that the trends we are seeing are clearly driven by global warming.
That we need to accelerate our response to climate change is now beyond obvious. But preparations are also needed for the irreversible changes in our weather which are already underway. Adapting to this will be a major task.
As with measures to meet Ireland’s climate targets, the necessary preparations to deal with the consequences of more extreme weather are not being implemented with sufficient urgency.The latest annual review by the Climate Change Advisory Council is clear that measures undertaken so far are generally “small-scale, reactive, incremental and underfunded.” There is, it finds, a lack of specific public funding and limited investment from the private sector.
Work is underway on updating Ireland’s plans in this area of adaptation , under the wider framework of climate change policy. But the challenge is significant and the council points to the need for more urgency, for example in developing and funding a plan to protect Ireland’s coastlines against flooding. A recent report from the Marine Institute pointed out that 40 per cent of the population lives within 5km of the coast.
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The council also points to the need to protect energy infrastructure, where vulnerabilities “may create cascading impacts to the economy and society.” There is a need to invest now, it points out, to quickly build resilience. Wetter winters and drier summers, meanwhile, provide challenges to water management and infrastructure, as well as agriculture, land use and many other areas.
Climate adaptation has, for years, appeared an important problem, but not an urgent one, Perhaps the string of extreme weather events we are now seeing will persuade policymakers that this is no longer a far-off risk, but something that must be urgently planned for and acted upon.