We must embrace climate for real change

When world leaders, including the Taoiseach, meet at the UN Climate Summit, they have a chance to make a real difference. Right now, it’s as if we are falling from a skyscraper muttering ‘so far so good’, writes Éamonn Meehan, executive director of Trócaire

CENTURIES after defences were first built around many Irish towns, we face the prospect of having to rebuild them. The fear this time is not political conflict but something that is already all around us: our climate.

Flooding and storms last winter submerged towns, destroyed property and left thousands of people without power. As we begin the journey towards another winter, people in coastal regions all over Ireland will be bracing themselves for a repeat of the scenes that inflicted over €60m worth of damage to the country.