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IPCC report highlights need for immediate action on climate change agenda

Issued : Monday 19 November, 2007

Today’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights the need for Ireland to take a leadership position in tackling the impact and effects of climate change.

Action taken to mitigate the consequences of global warming, is certainly needed but it may already be too late to eliminate all the harmful affects. We must be prepared to adapt to Climate Change and accept that is a key issue that will affect us in Ireland.

The effects of climate change will have an effect on local communities, vulnerable people, older people, the less well off in Ireland as well as in other countries.

There have been a number of important studies in Ireland into the impacts of Climate Change. These studies show that Ireland will experience significant climate change impacts most of which are now unavoidable, with widespread negative effects for environment. We need to put in place measures now for adaptation to climate change.

We need to climate proof our County Development Plans, prohibit urban sprawl, invest in measures that will protect our communities from flooding, have early warning systems in place for extreme weather events, and ensure water supplies for domestic, agricultural and industrial use.

We will have to make decisions where not to build and if we build, what we need to ensure that our communities are protected in so far as we can protect them from the impacts of climate change at local level. And in our local communities we must ensure that we protect the specific groups of people including, older people, the less well off, farmers, people living in high risk areas including coastal communities.