05-06-2025
‘Farming sector forefront to impact of climate change'
The impact of climate change needs to 'appear higher' on the policy agenda, according to Maynooth University's Prof. Conor Murphy.
The professor was speaking at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's (DAFM) Agriculture and Climate Change conference in Dublin Castle this morning (June 5).
According to Prof. Murphy, Ireland's agriculture sector is 'vulnerable' and needs to adapt to climate change.
He said: 'The farming sector is at the forefront of the impact of climate change. No other livelihood is more influenced by the weather conditions on a day-to-day, season-to-season, and year-to-year basis.
'Many people talk about Ireland experiencing a reduced impact of climate change. Our observation shows that many parts of the country are experiencing a rate of warming higher than the global minimum,' he explained.
Climate change
Prof. Murphy believes that in the coming years, droughts will become more intense, and more extreme.
The professor claims that the future impacts of climate change will depend on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Murphy said: 'If we look back a couple of years to 2018, and the drought impacts that we saw, droughts have occurred right throughout history, but we expect them to become more intense, more extreme, with changes in rainfall at the increased temperature.
'At the time, many people were saying, 'we've always had drought'. Yes, we did in the 1970s, but take a step back, in the 2018 context it's happening in a much warmer world.'
'The future impacts of climate change will be more severe. We're seeing the impacts emerge,' Murphy explained.
The professor also noted, that if GHG emissions were stopped today, the impacts of climate change would still be experienced 'for decades to come'.
'The earlier we reduce emissions the less severe future impacts will be,' Prof. Murphy said.
'One way for individuals to think about future climate change, is to think about memorable extremes. What did it mean for your farm? What did it mean for your sector?' he added.
