Ireland, like most countries, is well behind the curve in planning for and resourcing policies to ensure resilience to ongoing climate change. Government departments, local authorities and State agencies have weak strategic plans to address adaptation requirements, the latest assessment by the Climate Change Advisory Council finds.
Poor infrastructure and inadequate flood protection is evident in the face of increasingly menacing extreme weather and slow but relentless sea level rise and coastal erosion, which is a particular threat to major cities located on estuaries.
Cutting carbon emissions has to be a primary focus, but adjusting the economy and wider society – in how and where we live – has to happen in tandem to withstand inevitable climate impacts because of already baked-in global warming from recent decades.
The council highlights vulnerability due to lack of sectoral plans and dedicated funding. Finalisation of a coastal management plan and strengthening critical infrastructure such as ports, railways, electricity grids and key roads should be the immediate task, backed by ring-fenced annual budgets for adaptation measures.
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Its report comes with a blunt lesson on spending; notably the consequences of reactive (inevitably chaotic) responses to unfolding events, such as the devastating floods in Midleton last autumn, versus robust preparedness. In short, investment is urgently needed to avoid the worst damage and higher costs likely in future years.
It predicts coastal flooding will cost ¤2 billion every year by 2050, if adaptive measures are not taken, and river flooding would cost ¤60 million per year. These costs could be greatly reduced if there is sufficient investment now.
As the chair of the council’s adaptation committee Prof Peter Thorne said, even if Ireland cuts its emissions the climate will not improve again, “it will just stop getting worse”. Adaptation, including ramping-up nature based solutions, has to be applied at scale to enable it to play a crucial part in curbing the excesses of our disturbed climate.