McHugh calls on local authorities to plan for climate change

European election candidate, Saoirse McHugh, has called on all local authorities and farming bodies to plan for climate change.

The Midlands North West candidate urged the bodies to make climate resilience central to their development plans, or risk leaving themselves exposed to disasters. 

“The weather is getting wetter and much less predictable and is therefore more likely to cause disruption to people’s lives,” she told The Mayo News.

She continued: “We had solid rain from September last year until a few weeks ago, floods not draining, machines couldn’t get into fields. There was lots of politicians out calling for emergency supports, but very few willing to try and prepare for what these new, unpredictable weather systems will cause.”

MET Éireann has reported that rainfall throughout the last 30-year period is up 7 percent on the previous period, and this looks set to continue as global temperatures rise. Ms McHugh has warned that the real threat is in the extreme weather that climate change can bring. 

“So far in Ireland we have escaped the killer heat waves and droughts that have hit other parts of Europe, but we’re completely unprepared for if they do arrive. A three-month drought could put our water systems and agriculture under serious pressure because we don’t have the infrastructure in place,” she said.

The former Green Party member said this kind of weather must be planned for ‘in the long term with meaningful community engagement’. 

She added: “That means looking at water tables, soft engineering for flood management and county development plans. It means having clear and honest conversations with communities about which direction things are heading and how we can best prepare for that. The good news for Ireland is that we have so far avoided extreme weather events, we have a temperate climate, we’re not very densely populated and are a relatively wealthy country, so there’s a lot we can do.”

A study by The European Central Bank has linked extreme weather shocks to food price increases which are contributing to the current cost of living crisis, something Ms McHugh believes we could see more of.

She explained: “Unfortunately, we import so much of our food from areas like the south of Spain, which have been experiencing major droughts. If harvests are impacted, food prices will rise. There’s a lot we can do with our food systems here in Ireland to reduce dependency on imports, and we need to move on that while we can.”

Data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show that April 2024 was globally warmer than any previous April on record, making it the eleventh month in a row where this record has been broken, a worrying development which Ms McHugh claims is ‘not being taken seriously enough’. 

“I think we’re way past mincing around with this. The changes have to happen, and the only way to make them happen quickly is if they can improve people’s material conditions. State owned renewables can reduce energy costs, state funded retrofitting can make housing more affordable and available, there are ways to make it work.

“We can’t let conspiracy theories or polluting lobbies slow down climate action anymore, we’ve already lost too much time. Making us resilient can make life better in so many ways through shorter commutes, good jobs and more natural areas so there’s so much to gain by acting now,” she concluded.