Ireland may be lucky to avoid much of the extreme climate change that has already occurred and is likely to occur in other parts of the world, but we must not become complacent.
The country is experiencing warming not seen in more than 100,000 years, with 17 of the 20 warmest years in Ireland’s history occurring since 1990. And this is fundamentally altering the climate in the second half of this century, posing dangers that relatively benign people cannot recognize. There is today.
There is no masking the findings of the 23 Irish climate and energy experts who produced the Irish Climate Change Assessment (ICCA). It considers where the country stands in the face of a worsening crisis, so evident in recent storms and floods, perhaps exacerbated by global warming.
Talk openly about knowledge gaps. The path to the holy grail of climate neutrality is unclear. and weak implementation of government policies in key areas of reducing emissions and adapting to inevitable negative changes.
But it is not a doomsday document. It reveals the enormous benefits and opportunities that can be gained from collective action. Not only will severe weather be reduced, but economic development prospects will improve, air pollution will be reduced, and nature loss will be halted.
Focuses on solutions, explains what climate change buzzwords like “social change” and “just transition” actually mean to different key players, and provides tools to help achieve such outcomes. Offers.
The big “if” is conditional on rapid transformative action across all sectors of the economy, reinforced by societal buy-in.
“The future climate is in our collective hands,” it says.
Stopping global warming, both globally and in Ireland, will require us to quickly reach at least net-zero carbon dioxide and significantly reduce emissions of other greenhouse gases. Every action is important because the impact on Ireland will increase significantly with each further increase in warming.
Achieving net-zero emissions, preferably by 2050, should be our north star. Simply put, it means balancing the amount of greenhouse gases we emit with the amount we remove or store. This is very important for stabilizing the climate. For Ireland, the outlook is for rising temperatures and intense rainfall to ease relatively quickly.
The analysis was commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency and carried out by Ireland’s leading climate science experts, including academics and representatives from government departments and state agencies. It is modeled on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s approach, where leading climate scientists assess progress and likely scenarios. ICCA localizes global assessments. Essentially, by evaluating over 2,600 research papers submitted to Ireland, we say this is solid scientific evidence.
Volume 4 includes:
- What does the science show globally and how does it apply to Ireland? That is, we are warming in line with the global pattern, but that is not a comfortable reason. .
- How can we reduce emissions and achieve a climate-neutral Ireland? It points out that there are significant gaps, particularly in agriculture and land use, where the future direction is unclear.
- What will be needed to adapt to the inevitable impacts, especially increased flooding and more intense storms? The report says adaptation plans are patchy, with major cities struggling to cope with flooding, storm surges and rising sea levels. It is vulnerable.
- How do we achieve a ‘climate neutral, climate resilient and sustainable Ireland’? This focuses on realizing the benefits, opportunities and synergies if the country acts quickly.
Some particularly worrying findings include that adaptation has been “too slow and piecemeal.” We are not adequately prepared for the storms, floods, and droughts that will come our way. Ireland’s energy system remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, even though a ‘net zero’ electricity supply system is essential for other sectors to decarbonise through electrification.
It turns out there are well-established “no-regret options” that need to be taken now that will put most of us on the path to net-zero CO2 emissions.
Beyond that lies the “future energy option” of technology size and scale to achieve our goals. No-regret options include demand reduction (through energy efficiency and consumption reduction), electrification (electric vehicles and heat pumps), deployment of market-ready renewable energy (wind energy and solar), and low-carbon heating options ( district heating). Options include hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, nuclear energy, and electrical fuels.
Renewable energy can increasingly meet future energy demands, but will need to be supplemented with expensive and unproven carbon removal to achieve net-zero energy systems in hard-to-abate sectors. there is.
What is at issue, however, is the political and public disconnect between understanding climate science and appropriate action. The report found that while Irish people demonstrate strong understanding and support for climate action, there is a gap between the desire for action and the delivery of change.
Irish news media is a major source of information for people to learn about climate change, but the extent to which it plays its traditional role of informing the public, acting as a watchdog and holding authorities to account is limited. “We are struggling to report on climate change in the United States.”
Assess how to drive change by overcoming inertia and motivating individual and organizational action. “The collective action of individuals is one of the more effective ways for societies to change policy and can enable needed system changes.”
ICCA emphasizes the rewards of quick and consistent action as you build on your progress on the train. “The potential for faster, broader and deeper transformation offers an opportunity to enable a sustainable and resilient future for Ireland as it thrives in a changing world,” the report said. states.
The government claims its public consultation climate plan is one of the most ambitious in the world. ICCA provides a timely mechanism to test its views, and its results and projections should be checked against this plan to ensure that it is sufficiently robust and transformative. Evaluating both documents shows that the answer to that question is negative.
There is much work to be done before the Cabinet signs the Blueprint to counter the inevitable turbulent climate that is upon us.
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