The climate crisis and biodiversity loss are two of the biggest national security threats facing Ireland today, according to multiple official reports.
While years of eroding Irish biodiversity means nature “is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and has a low adaptive capacity compared to other vulnerable sectors”. “Every year the World Economic Forum do a survey of key decision makers in business and public policy... looking at key threats to the global economy. Over the last decade, environmental challenges are a key threat.
“It’s everything from the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the Gulf Stream as we call it, weakening off the coast of Ireland. If that slows down or shuts off... because of the melting polar caps that means we are plunged into Arctic winters. “The solution seems to be to pay Turkey... houses millions of refugees that are coming into Europe. Is that the strategy? Build walls and become a much more hostile environment for refugees?
“That 1.5 metres you then have to put on top of the standard tide and you also have to superimpose tidal surge on top of that. Then is starts to become a very serious prospect in terms of coastal populations, zoning of land and where people live in the future.” Its chair Marie Donnelly says the CCAC has been looking at sustainable food production and energy security, which was highlighted as a risk in Climate Action Plans. “Today, Ireland is food secure but we are not food independent because we are integrated into the European Union and global food system,” she explained.