Ireland’s independent Climate Change Advisory Council has warned that the Government has failed to learn adequate lessons from two devastating recent storms, with funding for climate adaptation measures critically insufficient.
Storm Darragh in December and Storm Éowyn in January caused widespread wind damage across the country, triggering multiple status red weather warnings and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. Storm Éowyn alone left 715,000 homes, farms, and businesses without electricity, with total damage estimated in the hundreds of millions of euro.
In its annual review published on Tuesday, the climate council criticized the Government’s inadequate response to the storm season and urged commitment to defined annual funding for climate adaptation actions, beginning with the upcoming budget.
The report expressed disappointment that a cross-government review of the Storm Éowyn response remains unpublished despite a new storm season approaching. This review was expected to identify key learnings across all sectors and provide crucial guidance for future preparedness.
The council recommended establishing emergency response hubs to assist people with basic needs during service outages, along with a permanent extreme weather assistance scheme to support individuals, businesses, and communities affected by climate events.
Professor Peter Thorne, Maynooth professor of geography specializing in climate change and chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council’s adaptation committee, emphasized the urgency of improved preparedness. “With extreme weather events continuing to increase in both magnitude and frequency, communities throughout Ireland must be better protected from their devastating impacts,” he said.
Thorne highlighted that the storms exposed Ireland’s vulnerability and “critical shortcomings in our preparedness and response systems,” calling for “stronger political leadership with a whole-of-Government response to these challenges” to achieve a climate-resilient Ireland.
The professor acknowledged positive developments including Ireland’s first national climate change risk assessment and the inclusion of climate adaptation factors in the revised national planning framework, but stressed these “urgently need to be built on.”
The criticism comes as scientists warn that climate change is intensifying storm systems, making extreme weather events both more frequent and severe. The cascading effects of recent storms demonstrated how infrastructure failures can compound, affecting power supplies, communications, water services, and emergency response capabilities simultaneously.
The council’s call for dedicated annual adaptation funding reflects concern that current investment remains inadequate given the scale of climate risks facing Ireland in coming decades.