'Increased focus on climate change impact on Clare needed' - warns TD

Fianna Fáil TD for Clare Cathal Crowe is calling for increased focus on the impacts of climate change in Clare, in light of this week’s COP26 climate change conference.

“In the week that COP26 is taking place, it’s important that we reflect on climate change at local and county level but also that as a population here in Ireland, we act on a global level,” said Deputy Crowe.

“Since my election to Clare County Council in 2004, I recall the Springfield area of Clonlara flooding on five occasions.

“The people living in this townland who have experienced the wrath of this flooding can surely attest to even more incidents of flooding around their homes and farms.

“On each occasion, engineers from the OPW referred to the flooding as a once in a century event but in truth, the flooding in Clonlara has become an almost bi-annual event.

“The once in a century terminology in now very outdated insofar as flooding is concerned but the flood embankments currently being constructed in Clonlara will help hugely to protect the community in the years ahead.

“An earthen embankment covered with impermeable clays and underpinned with a series of sluice gates will help to keep the waters back from Springfield but it’s almost certain that other parts of Clare, without flood protection embankment, will experience more and more flooding in the years ahead.

“Maps published online this week by Climate Central modelled what flooding could look like on a global level within the next decade.

“I have taken a look at these maps and you can zoom right down to townland level in Co. Clare.

“My initial reaction was that this was possibly overexaggerated, but their forecasting is representative of what would happen if global temperatures continue to rise without any significant action being taken by governments and by people.

“In the coming weeks, the government will produce its climate action plan.

“I think we need to take climate change very seriously but I don’t believe that we should make the rural economy the fall guy for an entirely global problem – in particular, I will be urging colleagues in government to not take a punitive approach to farmers in our county.

“Farmers are custodians of the landscape and I firmly believe that trees and hedgerows growing on their lands should be counted as carbon credits that they can use for themselves rather than being used to offset the carbon outputs of industry.”

The UN event is ongoing until November 12 and looks at accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.