Higher future rainfall and rising sea levels means Galway needs to start planning now, and not in the future, on how it can protect itself from two sources of flooding.
This is the view of Green Party Galway City West councillor, Niall Murphy, who noted that the proposed flood defences for the city should reach the start of the planning process by the end of this year.
“With construction not due to start until 2026, we could be in a race to protect the city as storm events and extreme tides become more common,” he said. “Apart from reducing our contribution to climate change, we also need to protect ourselves from some of the impacts that have become inevitable.”
'A brief and rapidly closing window'
.
Cllr Murphy made his call following publication of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’. The report concludes:
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future."
The report finds that climate change has already caused widespread adverse impacts including floods, droughts and food security issues. Between 2010 and 2020, 15 times more people died from floods, droughts and storms in very vulnerable regions including parts of Africa, South Asia. and Central and South America, than in other parts of the world.
'A little more time'
“In Galway, our relative wealth and temperate climate means we can look at these dangers as remote concerns that impact faraway countries,” said Cllr Murphy. “There is a grain of truth to that, but it only buys us a little more time in a global crisis.”
.
Cllr Murphy [pictured above] said Galway must heed the dangers of global warming, but he viewed An Bord Pleanála’s recent approval for the Galway City Ring Road as flying in the face of such concerns.
“The ring road will increase emissions by 37 per cent,” he said. “Opening up development land west of Bearna was given priority over our climate obligations. Each time we make a decision that increases our reliance on private cars, we bring the worst predictions of the IPCC report closer to home.”
