Professor Karen Wiltshire on Ireland’s Climate Change

Posted on: 14 October 2024

Ireland's Climate Stripes graphic and #showyourstripes initiative was created by Professor Ed Hawkins, University of Reading.  Data from Berkeley Earth & ERA5-Land.

Climate change is the biggest global challenge we humans currently face. Global warming, with resultant weather extremes, combined with increased resource limitation, pandemics and biodiversity loss are resulting in societal destabilisation and upheaval. The sustainability and survival of the next generations and their livelihoods are severely threatened.

Especially in Ireland, a small land mass in a rapidly warming ocean, we already have to deal with the highest rates of sea level rise in Europe, warming temperatures as well as strange and hard to predict weather.

With nearly 50% of the population living within 10 km of the coast, we urgently need courageous ideas, solutions and plans for future cities and coastal infrastructure. Ireland's industry and thus, livelihoods, are dependent on functioning harbours and shipping infrastructure with 99% of all Irish imports and exports travelling by sea. At the same time, Ireland as a nation has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita in the world. We are a nation of consumers, rely on cars for transport and are dependent industry and agriculture with large energy needs and unfortunate carbon footprints.

However, Ireland is committed to helping mitigate the CO₂ crisis, so that we and our friends, for example the Small Island Developing Nations and tropical Africa have sustainable and liveable futures.

Our research and impact

We too, at Trinity, are committed to making a climate difference. Through innovative research and future-fit education we already provide knowledge, expertise and solutions towards mitigation of climate change and a resilient Irish society. Our expertise covers a multitude climate issues. For example, we consider Irish Boglands as a future carbon sink, we research new forms of more carbon friendly building materials and fuel. We consider the quality of drinking water in areas of sudden rainfall and flooding. We work with natural scientists and engineers to come up with nature-based solutions for living with sea level rise. We try to understand the effects of climate on health and human society. We implement climate solutions in old and new buildings and are taking huge strides towards becoming more sustainable and greening of our inner-city campus.

We are setting up a new climate research and education gateway, networking our research and underpinning our multi-disciplinary climate-related education to make us future-fit as a university and for better knowledge-delivery to society.

Trinity’s goals

Ireland's Climate Action Plan requires us to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 51% by 2030 and Trinity’s Sustainability Strategy sets out to achieve Net Zero by 2040.  In addition, we are conserving, managing and restoring at least 30% of Trinity’s land area for nature. We set out to support a culture shift in behaviours that promote and recognise the interrelatedness of planetary and human health and well-being.

Above all, we at Trinity are networking our expertise with our colleagues, policy makers and public stakeholders throughout Ireland and internationally to ensure excellence and maximum effect. Together we have the knowledge and solutions for a resilient Irish future.

#ShowYourStripes

This Friday 18 October, as part of Climate and Biodiversity Action Week, we are lighting up Trinity’s front façade with the Irish climate stripes. This initiative is made possible by Trinity Sustainability in conjunction with the Co-Centre for Climate+ Biodiversity+ Water, where #showyourstripes creator Prof Ed Hawkins serves as Deputy Director.

Join us and find out more information on Trinity’s Climate and Biodiversity Action week on the Sustainability events calendar here.   

Prof Wiltshire is Trinity’s Chair of Climate Science

This initiative has been made possible with the financial support from a Co-Centre award number 22/CC/11103. The Co-Centre award is managed by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and supported via UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), and the Irish Government’s Shared Island initiative.

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