{"id":360519,"date":"2026-03-23T07:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/360519\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T07:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T07:14:07","slug":"ireland-must-prepare-evacuation-plans-for-coastal-areas-as-climate-change-intensifies-says-expert-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/360519\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland must prepare \u2018evacuation\u2019 plans for coastal areas as climate change intensifies, says expert \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

New coastal defences and \u201cemergency evacuation processes\u201d are needed to prepare Ireland for the worst consequences of climate change<\/a>, an Irish expert has warned.<\/p>\n

Prof Iris Moller, a coastal geomorphologist at Trinity College Dublin<\/a>, said protections for communities were needed \u201curgently\u201d.<\/p>\n

She was speaking in response to a World Meteorological Organisation<\/a> (WMO) analysis published on Monday showing Earth\u2019s climate is swinging increasingly out of balance, with the planet taking in heat more quickly than it can shed it. <\/p>\n

Oceans absorb most of the excess, but the warming waters are expanding, melting sea ice, fuelling storms and raising sea levels more rapidly than previously recorded.<\/p>\n

For island nations such as Ireland and coastal communities globally, the implications are enormous. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been no time in the past when we have built so close to the coast and in such low-lying areas and where so many people have been at risk,\u201d Moller said. <\/p>\n

She said if Storm Chandra<\/a> in January had occurred during a high spring tide, \u201cthe situation would have been many times worse in coastal towns and cities, including Dublin\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of the global climate suggests that it is only a matter of time before we see this combination of extreme river and coastal flooding on the Irish east coast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must urgently implement a range of measures to deal with this risk via nature-based solutions, coastal protection measures and emergency evacuation processes, as well as radically switching away from fossil fuels.\u201d <\/p>\n

The WMO on Monday publishes its State of the World Climate report for 2025, a year that saw more than 300 extreme weather events<\/a> including crippling heatwaves, intense rain and deadly floods, droughts and winds.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Expect more extreme weather as climate change impact now \u2018stark\u2019, says Met \u00c9ireannOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The report says all indicators of climate change are moving in the wrong direction. <\/p>\n

It shows 2015-2025 were the 11 warmest years on record<\/a> with the past three the hottest of all. <\/p>\n

The energy imbalance \u2013 the difference between heat absorbed and released \u2013 is the highest on record. <\/p>\n

There are more heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than at any time in the past 800,000 years and more carbon dioxide, the most common of the gases, than in two million years. <\/p>\n

Concentrations continued to rise last year, indicating efforts to slow fossil fuel use are not yet sufficient. <\/p>\n

Sea ice in the Arctic was at its lowest or second-lowest extent ever in 2025, while the last four years have been the lowest in the Antarctic. <\/p>\n

It was also one of the worst five years for glacier shrinkage, further adding to sea-level rise. <\/p>\n

Sea levels are 11cm higher than 30 years ago, and 23cm higher than in 1900, and the rate of increase is accelerating. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause warming of the oceans will continue for centuries even if emissions of greenhouse gases cease, sea level will continue to rise on the same timescale,\u201d the report says. <\/p>\n

Moller said previous projections of sea-level rise to the end of this century \u2013 a further 26cm-77cm \u2013 would probably be exceeded. <\/p>\n

United Nations<\/a> secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a> said it was clear Earth was being \u201cpushed beyond its limits\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings are not confined to charts and graphs. They are written into the daily lives of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn families struggling as droughts and storms drive up food prices; in workers pushed to the brink by extreme heat; in farmers watching crops wither; in communities and homes swept away by floods. <\/p>\n

\u201cHumanity has just endured the 11 hottest years on record. When history repeats itself 11 times it is no longer a coincidence. It is a call to act.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New coastal defences and \u201cemergency evacuation processes\u201d are needed to prepare Ireland for the worst consequences of climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[68227,2885,103,61,60,131111,15342,23242,18335,56466],"class_list":{"0":"post-360519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-antonio-guterres","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-storm-chandra","14":"tag-trinity-college-dublin-tcd","15":"tag-united-nations-un","16":"tag-weather-events","17":"tag-world-meteorological-organisation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}