Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 April 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Ireland's Climate Change Assessment Report: Discussion
11:00 am
Professor Jennifer McElwain:
I agree with the Deputy that it is a challenge. Volume 1 contains the scientific basis of climate change and we highlight the co-benefits. One example is methane, on which there is a very important debate in the agricultural sector. Methane causes global warning but it also causes ozone at ground level and ozone leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths from asthma-related health causes. By addressing the mitigation measures to reduce climate change, there will be a very positive co-benefit to improve the well-being of human health in terms of atmospheric pollution. I have given one example from volume 1. However, I am sure that all of my colleagues have many examples of those positive messages that we have tried to highlight all the way throughout the volumes because it is much more palatable to take the positive than hit the negative all the time.
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