{"id":639281,"date":"2026-09-29T06:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639281\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:56:13","slug":"government-urged-to-stop-treating-extreme-events-as-one-off-emergencies-by-climate-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639281\/","title":{"rendered":"Government urged to stop treating ‘extreme events as one-off emergencies’ by climate council"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEVERE DAMAGE CAUSED by an array of extreme weather events in Ireland has shown that the government is not preparing systematically for the realities of climate change, but simply reacting to individual events, the Climate Change Advisory Council said.<\/p>\n

The council has this morning released a damning statement accompanying its latest report, preparing for Ireland\u2019s Changing Climate.<\/p>\n

The council said there is evidence the plethora of extreme weather events experienced by Ireland over the last number of years \u2013 Storm \u00c9owyn caused record power outages, Storm Chandra resulted in heavy flooding \u2013 are exacerbated by times of drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heavy rain last month brought on floods<\/a>\u00a0in Kerry and Dublin\u00a0as the ground was so dry it couldn\u2019t absorb the rainfall. The very dry summer also brought difficulty for farmers, who faced a severe fodder and cashflow crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve become used to news coverage of these extreme events, which sees government leaders don their wellies and attend community meetings with representatives. It generally leads to a sum of money ring-fenced for the community to upgrade flood defences.<\/p>\n

This approach, the Climate Change Advisory Council said, is unsatisfactory.<\/p>\n

The chair of the council\u2019s Adaptation Committee, Prof Peter Thorne, said the most effective adaptation measure is emissions reductions that avoid future impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland is already living with the consequences of a changing climate,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year alone, we have moved from severe flooding and prolonged rainfall to exceptional heat and drought-like conditions.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not prepared for either extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the government should accelerate mitigation actions while also taking action to protect society from the \u201ccoming storm\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot keep treating extreme events as one-off emergencies, simply repairing the damage while people continue to live in fear of the next major event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to build back better and take measures to protect vulnerable homes, communities, infrastructure and public services before the next crisis hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment needs to put a price on inaction to improve investment decisions and track delivery, fund the measures we know are needed and move from plans to delivery. Climate resilience will cost money, but the cost of inaction will be far greater.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was reported earlier this month that the weather phenomenon that\u2019s warming up the Pacific Ocean is going to make climate change-driven extreme weather events even worse<\/a> over the next few months.<\/p>\n

El Ni\u00f1o \u2013 a pattern of changing ocean temperatures and wind patterns in the tropical Pacific that happens every few years \u2013 is expected to fuel extreme weather into early next year, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organisation.<\/p>\n

Planning ahead<\/p>\n

\"january-26-2025-cork-ireland-fallen-100-year-old-copper-beech-tree-at-wilton-shopping-centre-cork-after-storm-eowyn\"
\n A fallen 100-year-old copper beech tree at Wilton Shopping Centre, Cork, after Storm \u00c9owyn in January 2025. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

The council further warned that Ireland\u2019s climate resilience planning and preparation does not match the scale or urgency of the risks now faced by Ireland.<\/p>\n

It said there must be preparation for the full range of climate extremes, rather than treating storms, floods, droughts and periods of extreme heat as \u201cisolated emergencies\u201d.<\/p>\n

A week ahead of Budget 2027, it said the government needs to better understand the \u201cscale and level of investment\u201d required in climate resilience. This includes long-term planning and sustained investment.<\/p>\n

The council also said there is a need to quantify the \u201ccost of inaction\u201d so the cost of the continued delay on households, business, communities and the State can be determined.<\/p>\n

So, what does the council actually want the government to do? And what exactly is it not happy with?<\/p>\n

Sectoral adaptation plans<\/a> (SAPs) produced by the Department of Climate are meant to guide the delivery of action on the priority climate risks facing 13 sectors in Ireland.<\/p>\n

The council said SAPs published in November 2025 are not comprehensively costed, lack committed funding and measurable targets, and do not \u201cconsistently align actions with identified climate risks\u201d.<\/p>\n

Flood protection is \u201cone clear example of the ever widening delivery gap as growing climate impacts rapidly outstrip our response\u201d, the council continued.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Office of Public Works (OPW) completed the largest study of flood risk ever undertaken by the State.<\/p>\n

Eight years after they were prioritised through the national flood risk assessment, 30 of the 54 major flood relief schemes remain at Stage 1 \u2013 preliminary design, while major schemes currently take an average of 11 years to complete.<\/p>\n

The council said technical expertise and staffing within the OPW and local authorities must be strengthened to accelerate delivery.<\/p>\n

On flood resilience, it was noted in the report that the government should strengthen capacity for flood forecasting and early warning systems, and establish permanent community resilience programmes covering prevention, preparedness, protection and recovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government should move beyond pilot projects and scale up nature-based approaches across rural catchments and urban and coastal areas, it recommended.<\/p>\n

Additionally, it said care must be taken so short-term pressures don\u2019t create long-term climate risks. The proposal of rezoning flood-prone sites by councillors across Ireland to combat the housing crisis was cited by the council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEVERE DAMAGE CAUSED by an array of extreme weather events in Ireland has shown that the government is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2885,153173,52922,246,42959,61,60,43,11259,66706],"class_list":["post-639281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-resilience","tag-climate-change-advisory-council","tag-environment","tag-flooding","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-the-morning-lead","tag-tml"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639281","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=639281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}