John Gibbons: 'There are no free lunches when it comes to climate mitigation'

Residents fill a skip with flood damaged items from their homes after Storm Babet hit on Wednesday. The residents of Copper Valley Vue in Glanmire, Cork, faced a major cleanup after flood water hit their homes. 

“We basically have three choices: mitigation, adaptation and suffering”. This is how Barack Obama’s energy advisor, Dr John Holdren, in 2007 memorably set out the stark choices ahead.

“The question is what the mix is going to be. The more mitigation we do, the less adaptation will be required and the less suffering there will be”, Holdren explained.