Extreme wind, coastal erosion and coastal flooding have been identified as the most ‘significant’ environmental risks to Ireland over the next five years, according to a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The National Climate Change Risk Assessment (NCCRA), which is the first such report to identify Ireland’s vulnerability to the growing impacts of climate change, identifies 115 climate-related risks across sectors including energy, transport, communications, health, food, water, and ecosystems, with 43 classified as significant.
Extreme wind is identified as a potential risk to Ireland’s communications and energy distribution infrastructure, while wind, coastal erosion and flooding poses a risk to buildings and transport infrastructure, the report noted.
‘Additional urgent action’
“We know that Ireland is being impacted by climate change already,” commented Laura Burke, EPA director general. “This comprehensive assessment highlights the need for additional urgent action to ensure Ireland is sustainably resilient to the risks that we currently face, and will increasingly experience, in the coming decades.”
The assessment was undertaken by the EPA in collaboration with government departments, state agencies, and other stakeholders, and seeks to provide the ‘best available evidence and analysis to inform climate adaptation and resilience in Ireland at a national level’.
As the EPA noted, the assessment will inform national adaptation planning, support sectoral and local authority responses, and guide investment in climate resilience.
Cascading risks
“This report, the first National Climate Change Risk Assessment, clearly shows how risks cascade across sectors,” Burke added.
“Recent events, such as Storms Darragh and Éowyn, demonstrated how damage to critical infrastructure such as energy, water supply, transport and communications networks in turn give rise to impacts on human health, biodiversity and the financial system. Addressing these risks in an integrated and consistent way is key to achieving our national climate resilience objective.” Read more here.
