Agriculture has ranked fifth among 11 Irish sectors in a scoring system used to track progress in adapting to climate change.

The information presented in the Climate Change Advisory Council’s (CCAC) annual review showed that agriculture, forestry and seafood was said to have made moderate progress overall.

In the areas of governance and resourcing, as well as in risk and adaptive management, the sector’s progress was said to be moderate.

In policy implementation and mainstreaming, the sector received a good mark for its progress.

The sectors that ranked ahead of agriculture were transport, flood risk management, built and archaeological heritage and local government.

It ranked above national adaptation framework, communications networks, water quality and water services infrastructure, health, electricity and gas networks and biodiversity.

A 'now' problem

The report noted overall that climate change is no longer solely a future problem, it is already adversely impacting society.

The annual review referenced the impact wet weather had on livestock and tillage farming from autumn 2023 to spring 2024 several times.

Since the last annual review, temperatures globally have exceeded 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial era for 12 straight months for the first time since records began.

The CCAC said that while we must continue to relentlessly pursue climate neutrality, Ireland must now develop and deliver measures to adapt to our changing climate with the same urgency.

Chair of the adaptation committee Professor Peter Thorne said: “On the reduction of emissions, we must fully play our part in the wider global commitment to achieve climate neutrality.

“However, ensuring we adapt to and are resilient to the changes in our climate is an area that we alone are responsible for.

“It is the core mission of any government to protect its citizens from harm and it is way past time to start taking concrete steps at speed and scale to increase our resilience to the impacts of current and future climate changes,” he said.

Rainfall

The review cited the Nature Restoration Law as a way of helping to improve Ireland’s biodiversity, as well as a study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), which showed that “climate change also had a strong influence on autumn and winter total rainfall, which led to major agricultural impacts”.

In the pre-industrial climate, wet periods such as the October 2023 to March 2024 season occurred at most once every 80 years.

In today’s climate, they have become at least four times more likely and are expected to occur about once every 20 years.

The study estimates that climate change contributed to increasing the amount of total rainfall by about 15%.

If warming reaches 2°C, similar periods of rainfall that can saturate soils and cause large agricultural losses will become much more common and will be expected to occur about once every 13 years.