Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 January 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Séamus Walsh:

On the question of attribution, I think Mr. Moran has covered most of it. He mentioned the latest research. The next challenge is to make that information available on an operational basis. One thing we can say and have been saying relatively recently in respect of severe weather events is that they are part of the general trend in global warming. For example, during the heatwave, we were able to say it was part of the trend in global warming. A rapid attribution study was carried out that said that the heatwave over Ireland last summer was twice as likely to have occurred because of human-induced climate change.