Monday’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has stressed the limited timeframe available for legislators to act on climate change, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan has said.

Minister Ryan stated that the increased incidence of extreme weather events and the unprecedented shifts witnessed in climatic conditions over the past few decades have made clear the consequences of inaction on climate issues.

“Today’s report by the IPCC is a stark reminder that we have limited time in which to act to prevent more devastating impacts from climate change. The report, based on the latest climate science, has observed unprecedented changes in the climate system,” he stated.

Agriculture

The minister drew attention to the report’s predictions on the impacts of increased global temperatures on Irish agriculture.

The consequences for the sector will be dire if temperatures continue to rise, Minister Ryan claimed.

“For Ireland and Europe, the report predicts more intense heatwaves and increased flooding as temperatures rise.

“If global temperature rise by more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels, there will be critical consequences for agriculture and health,” the minister said.

Some hope

The Green Party minister also commented that greenhouse gas emission reduction plans have been proven to limit the impact of climate change on global communities and that action in the area does offer hope.

“Every region of the world, across the entire climate system, has already been impacted by extreme events. There is ever greater certainty about climate change and ever greater urgency about the need to tackle it,” he said.

Environmental group response

Director of the Friends of the Earth environmental group Oisín Coghlan stated that the report’s findings demonstrated the need to keep expected emissions changes associated with any proposed policy central to the Government’s consideration of that policy.

“What is crystal clear now is that every time the Government faces a policy choice we need them to choose the option that reduces emissions rather than the one that raises emissions.

“That may sound obvious, but it is all too often not what happens. We have to start treating climate action like the emergency it is,” Coghlan commented.