Government urged to stop treating 'extreme events as one-off emergencies' by climate council

SEVERE DAMAGE CAUSED by an array of extreme weather events in Ireland has shown that the government is not preparing systematically for the realities of climate change, but simply reacting to individual events, the Climate Change Advisory Council said.

The council has this morning released a damning statement accompanying its latest report, preparing for Ireland’s Changing Climate.

The council said there is evidence the plethora of extreme weather events experienced by Ireland over the last number of years – Storm Éowyn caused record power outages, Storm Chandra resulted in heavy flooding – are exacerbated by times of drought. 

Heavy rain last month brought on floods in Kerry and Dublin as the ground was so dry it couldn’t absorb the rainfall. The very dry summer also brought difficulty for farmers, who faced a severe fodder and cashflow crisis. 

We’ve become used to news coverage of these extreme events, which sees government leaders don their wellies and attend community meetings with representatives. It generally leads to a sum of money ring-fenced for the community to upgrade flood defences.

This approach, the Climate Change Advisory Council said, is unsatisfactory.

The chair of the council’s Adaptation Committee, Prof Peter Thorne, said the most effective adaptation measure is emissions reductions that avoid future impacts.

“Ireland is already living with the consequences of a changing climate,” he said. “This year alone, we have moved from severe flooding and prolonged rainfall to exceptional heat and drought-like conditions.

“We are not prepared for either extreme.”

He said the government should accelerate mitigation actions while also taking action to protect society from the “coming storm”.

Advertisement

“We cannot keep treating extreme events as one-off emergencies, simply repairing the damage while people continue to live in fear of the next major event.

“We need to build back better and take measures to protect vulnerable homes, communities, infrastructure and public services before the next crisis hits.

“Government needs to put a price on inaction to improve investment decisions and track delivery, fund the measures we know are needed and move from plans to delivery. Climate resilience will cost money, but the cost of inaction will be far greater.”

It was reported earlier this month that the weather phenomenon that’s warming up the Pacific Ocean is going to make climate change-driven extreme weather events even worse over the next few months.

El Niño – a pattern of changing ocean temperatures and wind patterns in the tropical Pacific that happens every few years – is expected to fuel extreme weather into early next year, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organisation.

Planning ahead

The council further warned that Ireland’s climate resilience planning and preparation does not match the score or urgency of the risks now faced by Ireland.

It said there must be preparation for the full range of climate extremes, rather than treating storms, floods, droughts and periods of extreme heat as “isolated emergencies”.

A week ahead of Budget 2027, it said the government needs to better understand the “scale and level of investment” required in climate resilience. This includes long-term planning and sustained investment.

The council also said there is a need to quantify the “cost of inaction” so the cost of the continued delay on households, business, communities and the State can be determined.

So, what does the council actually want the government to do? And what exactly is it not happy with?

Related Reads

Summer 2026 was officially the hottest in modern Irish history

Farmer warns drought could drive up grocery prices later this year

You can see how the Irish landscape changed during the drought through satellite images

Sectoral adaptation plans (SAPs) produced by the Department of Climate are meant to guide the delivery of action on the priority climate risks facing 13 sectors in Ireland.

The council said SAPs published in November 2025 are not comprehensively costed, lack committed funding and measurable targets, and do not “consistently align actions with identified climate risks”.

Flood protection is “one clear example of the ever widening delivery gap as growing climate impacts rapidly outstrip our response”, the council continued.

In 2018, the Office of Public Works (OPW) completed the largest study of flood risk ever undertaken by the State.

Eight years after they were prioritised through the national flood risk assessment, 30 of the 54 major flood relief schemes remain at Stage 1 – preliminary design, while major schemes currently take an average of 11 years to complete.

The council said technical expertise and staffing within the OPW and local authorities must be strengthened to accelerate delivery.

On flood resilience, it was noted in the report that the government should strengthen capacity for flood forecasting and early warning systems, and establish permanent community resilience programmes covering prevention, preparedness, protection and recovery”.

“The Government should move beyond pilot projects and scale up nature-based approaches across rural catchments and urban and coastal areas, it recommended.

Additionally, it said care must be taken so short-term pressures don’t create long-term climate risks. The proposal of rezoning flood-prone sites by councillors across Ireland to combat the housing crisis was cited by the council.

Sign Up
The Journal's climate change newsletter Follow the biggest news story of our times. Sign up for our monthly climate newsletter

Sign up
You are now signed up