Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Observations show that Ireland's climate is changing, with increases in average temperature, changes in precipitation patterns and weather extremes. Climate change is expected to have diverse and wide-ranging impacts on Ireland's environment, society and economic development, including on the built environment, managed and natural ecosystems, water resources, agriculture and food security, human health and coastal zones. Ireland will need to adapt to these impacts, including, in particular, flood risk, over time.

My Department leads and co-ordinates national climate adaptation policy, primarily through the development and implementation of the national adaptation framework, NAF. The current framework, developed under the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015, as amended, addresses these risks. The NAF outlines a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to climate adaptation in Ireland to improve the enabling environment for adaptation through ongoing engagement with key sectors, civil society, the private sector and the research community. The key objectives of the framework are implemented through activity at sectoral, regional and local levels. Departments and agencies are responsible for implementing adaptation measures in sectors under their remit.

Following a statutory review by my Department in 2022, a new framework is currently in development and a first draft is expected to be completed by the end of this year. A public consultation will follow in early 2024, following which the new NAF will be submitted to the Government for final approval.

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