'Hard and unpopular decisions' needed after stark UN climate report 

Brian O'Gallachoir, Professor of Energy Engineering at UCC. Picture: Dan Linehan

A major UN-backed report on global climate change should provide the impetus for flood defences in Cork and Dublin to get over the line, as well as a strategy for protecting thousands in Irish coastal communities, according to one of the country’s leading experts on climate action.

Brian Ó Gallachóir, professor of energy engineering at UCC and director at the MaREI centre for energy, climate, and marine research was reacting to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) findings that some changes across the world brought about by global warming were now irreversible, and that there was just a short window of time to avoid the most catastrophic fallout.

The planet now faces “unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades” because of human-induced climate change, exacerbating the already “dangerous and widespread disruption” to nature and billions of people, the IPCC said.

Prof Ó Gallachóir said the report “hammers a final nail into the denial of climate change”.

The latest report from the IPCC means that global communities should focus on resilience as well as mitigation against the worst effects, he said.

He pointed to the drawn-out and emotionally charged debate around Cork’s long-awaited flood defences, Clontarf’s stalled flood defence plan, and coastal communities particularly prone to erosion as pressing issues.

“One of the things I took from the IPCC report is that because climate change is already causing damage, we should be more focused on resilience, as well as mitigating against the effects,” said Prof Ó Gallachóir.

In Cork, flood defences have been hampered by inertia and a lack of consensus, similar to Clontarf. Hard and unpopular decisions will have to be made, outside of thinking of political consequences.”

Coastal communities prone to erosion, such as Glenbeigh and The Maharees in Kerry, need to be part of a national strategy to build resilience in the face of climate-related threats, Mr Ó Gallachóir added.

“We really need to improve vulnerable areas, and coasts are a clear case in point,” he said. 

“We have tended nationally to focus on mitigation against climate change, rather than resilience, whereas local authorities have done it the other way around.”

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, made up of more than 30 Irish civil society organisations, said the IPCC report shows “we are running out of time to secure a liveable planet for humans and nature”.

Stop Climate Chaos policy co-ordinator Bríd Walsh said: “The report makes clear the need for decisive and systemic action to increase climate finance flows to poorer countries, to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies, and secure a fair and fast transition to renewable energy.”

The Government now needs to adopt a much stronger leadership role at EU and international level to tackle the pressing issues, she added.