A 10-step plan for climate change

EVEN with dreaded climate change it’s a case of every cloud having a silver lining — for some.

The effects of global warming bring opportunities to those involved in housing, construction of sea walls, flood relief work and water storage, for example. But the opportunities are there only for those that can innovate and adapt quickly.

The Dutch are leading theway, with housing that can float while staying attached to water supplies, electricity and other services, and with work on genetic adaptation of crops.

We need to do likewise so as to meet new challenges, according to Frank Convery, chairman of Comhar Sustaintable Development Council.

“Bearing in mind that countries and regions to our south have for millennia experienced what we are now beginning to face up to, we should join with them as partners in innovation,” he urged.

“In addition to death and taxes, we can now add ‘climate change’ to life’s inevitabilities. The recent ‘early warnings’ in the UK, Northern India and Bangladesh concerning extreme weather events give us the chance to reflect on issues and implications for Ireland.” Temperatures in Ireland are increasing twice as fast as the rest of the planet and the country is facing wetter winters, drier summers and more flooding over the coming decades, says the latest EPA report.

We’re told climate change will lead to a rise in sea levels and intense weather events. But, Mr Convery said both were eminently manageable. He believes we can learn from how countries to the south have adapted.

Now is the time to get cracking in preparing for climate change and to come up with solid, effective policies so that we won’t have to start reacting when it is too late and the damage is already done. Mr Convery is advocating a 10-step approach to get Ireland ready for the well-signalled changes we will experience as the present century progresses.

Number one is that the government should create a deadline — as early as January 1, 2009 — after which no public funds will be used to compensate those who build or develop in identified flood-prone and erosion-prone zones.

“If we don’t do this, development will proceed in such zones and when the inevitable flooding and erosion happens, there will be pressure for the taxpayer to pick up the tab and compensate for losses,” Mr Convery warned.

As sea levels rise and storms intensify, there will be increasing pressure by affected property-owners for the building of sea walls and other means to protect and enhance their properties. Costs of intervention can be astronomically high and, in any event, often robs other communities on either side of the intervention.

American Professor Orrin Pilkey is an expert on coastal erosion, and has documented 150 years of experience with sea walls in the US. He concludes that sea walls re-direct wave energy to the unprotected beach at each end of such walls, increasing erosion and requiring construction of more walls.

So the issue here is that people carrying out such protection work in their own interest should do nothing that would harm their neighbours.

Mr Convery emphasised that public authorities need the best possible information on which to base difficult decisions in relation to actions they will have to take to cope with climate change. Such decisions will also need the back-up of effective public relations campaigns so that people will know why they are being taken.

“Specifically, we need high-quality information as to where flooding and erosion are likely to happen and what policies, activities and adaptive measures are likely to work in this quickly changing new world,” he pointed out.

However, the buck would have to stop with one well-resourced authority which should have the power to make legally binding decisions in the public interest. With climate change, we’re told by experts that water will become more expensive to store, treat and to manage, and become more seasonal in its natural availability. However, there need not be any shortage of this vital resource.

“There is no need to ration or regulate the use of water if we price it properly and charge the biggest users most for it. At present, those who conserve carefully are subsidising those who are feckless in their consumption,” Mr Convey stated.

“This applies also to inter-regional transfers. How can Dublin consider transfer of water from the Shannon when it doesn’t first price its own water to ensure careful use?”

Much is being made of the National Development Plan 2007-13 and the way it can change the face of Ireland through exciting investments in transport, water supply and treatment, drainage, energy and public buildings.

But Mr Convery said the plan had to be ‘adaptation proofed’ to make sure that it is designed, constructed and managed to deal with the more extreme weather events of the future.