Severity of climate change lost on some people – expert

An environmental scientist has said that despite there being “so much evidence that all of the [climate change] indicators are going the wrong way on climate” the severity of the situation can still go over people’s heads.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Tara Shine said weather events are becoming more extreme, such as the impact of Storm Babet on Midleton in Co Cork last year.

“Because we now have attribution science we can say that the rainfall in Midleton in those days of the flooding was 13% higher than it would have been without the impacts of climate change,” she said.

“We can draw a straight line between the fact that we’re warming up the planet and these extreme weather events. This is not something for the future, climate change is happening now.”

Dr Shine’s comments come as the UN’s Secretary General recently said new data from the World Meteorological Organization shows there is an 80% chance the planet will breach 1.5C in warming above pre-industrial times in at least one of the next five calendar years.

The past 12 months have already breached this level, with the average global temperature 1.63C higher than the pre-industrial average from June 2023 to May of this year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus monitoring system.

Meanwhile yesterday, Met Éireann said last month was the warmest May on record.

The forecaster said that last month was only the second time in 125 years that the average temperature for May exceeded 13C.

Dr Shine said the cost of dealing with the impacts of climate change will be “at a minimum half a billion euros a year every year from here to 2030”.

She said this is not irrelevant to any of us and is “part of our day to day lives”.

“It’s part of what our taxes are paying for and it has a direct cost on peoples’ earning abilities and the viability of their businesses,” she said.

Read more: UN chief calls for global fossil fuel advertising ban

Yesterday, Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan said the public are living in “deeply fearful” and “uncertain” times because of the threat of climate change.

The Green Party leader was speaking at the publication of Ireland’s second National Adaptation Framework.

The framework outlines the potential impacts of climate on Ireland, along with a “national strategy” to develop “adaption measures”.

It will also require government departments, infrastructure providers and local authorities to prepare a new cycle of adaptation plans for key sectors including agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, transport, flood risk management and tourism – which has been included for the first time.

Speaking at the publication of the framework, Mr Ryan said that the “challenges presented by climate change are unprecedented”.

Regarding the launch of the national adaptation framework, Dr Shine said there are “lots of great plans” but they need money to be implemented.

“The challenge isn’t around creating plans, the challenge is – as with everything – around their implementation,” she said.

“We’re way behind on what we need to be doing on adaptation and as we have failed and failed and failed to reduce emissions, the focus on actually adapting to what is now inevitable in terms of climate chaos is really, really important,” added Dr Shine.