Thematic Research Area 2 - Impacts and Adaptation

The Irish climate is changing in line with global and regional trends.  Adaptation and mitigation are essential elements in addressing the challenges and opportunities of climate change.  Mitigation refers to efforts to limit the human induced causes of climate change, while adaptation addresses the impacts and opportunities resulting from climate change.

Even if the world succeeds in limiting and then reducing GHG emissions, our planet will take time to recover from the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. Thus, we will still be faced with the impacts of climate change. We need therefore to take measures to adapt.

Adaptation is defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) as “adjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities” (IPCC, 2007).

The challenge for policy-makers, planners and environmental decision makers is to understand how the timing and magnitude of impacts may be affected by changes in climate and sea level rise associated with differing amounts and rates of change in global average temperature. See Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Key impacts as a function of increasing global average temperature change ( Source IPCC 2007: Working Group II Summary for policy makers and Technical Summary  Figure SPM.2.)

Once the impacts of climate change are understood, environmental decision makers then need to develop and implement strategies to ensure an optimal level of adaptation. Strategies focused on managing and conserving water, land and biological resources to maintain and restore healthy, effectively functioning and climate change-resilient ecosystems are one way to deal impacts. However, adaptation strategies should not be restricted to an analysis of the impacts of climate change but should also seek out opportunities for innovations in processes, technology and governance. 

Research and policy support

The objective of the thematic area impacts and adaptation is to provide improved analysis of climate change, its future impacts and adaptation options for Ireland. This involves:

• Development of monitoring and observation systems;
• Refining models to determine the impacts of climate change on the Irish environment;
• Identification of measures to enhance our capacity to adapt (building adaptive capacity) and taking advantage of the opportunities presented by climate change;
• Making information available for those responsible for policy, planning and environmental decision making

Research is targeted on:

• Determining the rates and extent of changes in natural and managed systems that are attributable to climate change;
• Improving projections of future climate conditions in Ireland at temporal and spatial scale appropriate to impacts analyses;
• Assessing future climate change impacts at national, regional and local scales in order to determine vulnerabilities and resilience to climate impact
• Refining models, developing tools and systems to inform decision makers on policy, planning and investment options in adaptation
• Supporting the development and implementation of a national adaptation strategy
• Making climate change information available to a variety of end users
• Engaging with international bodies and groups that are advancing climate observation and analyses systems, forecasting, impacts analysis, vulnerability and adaptation actions.

Projects currently being funded in this research area

Climate Change Research Reports

Download the report Summary of the state of knowledge on climate change impacts for Ireland 

Check out the latest Climate Change Research reports

International research networks:

CIRCLE (Climate Impact Research Coordination for a Larger Europe)

PEER (Partnership for European Environmental Research)

International Policy making networks

EIONET (The European Environment Information and Observation Network)

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

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Funding opportunities