Climate change report warns of drought dangers
Ireland’s climate is likely to change dramatically in the coming years if nothing is done to change its environmental policy, a report warned today.
The country would become prone to drought and its farming would be seriously affected.
Sea levels would rise, leaving low-lying areas vulnerable to flooding.
Environment Minister Martin Cullen described the predictions as “stark” and warned the consequences would be significant if nothing was done.
Mr Cullen said the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings showed that climate change in Ireland was likely to be consistent with that of the United Kingdom.
He said: “We are now beginning to get an absolute consistency in what the consequences are of not changing our ways both at a national level and globally.”
The report warned that summers would warm up by 2% in the Irish midlands, while winter temperatures would rise by 1.5 degrees.
Winter rainfall would increase by 10% but would fall by as much as 40% in the summer on parts of the south and east coast.
It said the changes could be felt almost immediately but would become more acute by the middle of the century.
Mr Cullen agreed that the findings were alarming.
The report set out in a “very straightforward and sometimes stark way” the consequences of not making changes to environmental policy.
“Ireland could become a very, very different country, a country that would be prone to drought, to massive flooding. It would seriously affect our farming,” he told Irish radio.
He said the Government was taking the issue very seriously and had duties to reduce emissions as a signatory to the Kyoto protocol.
The minister said he believed carbon taxes were an essential instrument in meeting environmental targets and were likely to be introduced in around 18 months.
“What we want to do is shift people from using highly damaging energies, heavy fuels like oils and coals, away from that and into for instance wind energy, into using gas a lot more,” he said.
If changes were not made the country would face huge fines by 2012.
He added: “So the incentive is there for us now to make these changes so that we play our part with our European partners and indeed in the global economy.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent body set up by the Government in 1994 to monitor Ireland’s environment and advise on new policies and strategies.
