Ireland’s ‘luck will run out’ on extreme weather events

High seas batter the sea front during Storm Kathleen in Youghal, Co. Cork earlier this year. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Ireland needs to brace for more extreme and devastating weather in the future, experts have warned, as new data shows how perilously close the world is to the tipping point to stave off the worst of climate change.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the world “needs an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell”, after the World Meteorological Organization said there is an 80% likelihood that the annual average global temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years.