‘Government needs to plan for climate change’

THE cities of Dublin, Cork and Galway could be uninhabitable in 100 years if the Government doesn’t start planning for climate change by considering the development of massive flood barriers such as that on the River Thames, the Irish Academy of Engineers (IAE) has warned.

The IAE said we urgently need to start identifying infrastructure across the country that is vulnerable to climate change, as well as begin to ensure new infrastructure is future-proofed to withstand the climate extremes predicted. He points to the Netherlands, where their Delta Commission has plans to spend €1.5 billion per year from now to 2050 on climate-proofing the country.

Engineering consultant Don Moore warned that the world is spending too much time on mitigating climate change and too little time working out how to counter the effects of such likely change.