Changing weather could lead to ‘significant’ risks to Cork

As evidence of climate change becomes ever more obvious, a UCC expert on climate change and wind energy has said that Cork risks suffering significant damage on a number of fronts, particularly when threats from weather events are compounded.

Dr Paul Leahy was speaking to The Echo as a new Environmental Protection Agency report disclosed that Ireland faced a total of 115 risks ranging from projected changes in climate conditions. 

Of these, 43 are deemed to be “significant risks” and span all sectors of the economy, society and environment, including energy, transport, communications, water security, public health, food production and supply and ecosystems.

This major study, the first of its type, was undertaken by the EPA in collaboration with government departments, state agencies, and other stakeholders to assess where, when and how climate risks are likely to impact Ireland over the coming decades.

Among the main threats faced by Ireland are the risk of disruption and damage to communications and energy distribution due to extreme wind and the risk of disruption and damage to buildings and transport infrastructure due to extreme wind, coastal erosion and coastal flooding.

Dr Leahy, who is a lecturer in wind energy in UCC and whose specific fields of research include climate change impacts, said it was interesting that the EPA’s climate change risk assessment focused to a large extent on the risks from compound events. “That’s when two different risks coincide in space and time,” he said.

Referring to the 2009 floods which caused hundreds of millions of Euro worth of damage to Cork city centre, Dr Leahy said that was an instance of a climate related compound event.

“We had a fairly long wetter-than-average period of several months leading up to November 2009. 

"What happened was the soils in most of the Lee catchment upstream of the city were approaching saturation, they couldn’t store anymore water, they were sodden, they were water-logged.

"Then we had the actual rain-water event which was a heavy event but wasn’t an unprecedented event and wouldn’t on its own be expected to cause those huge impacts.

"But there was nowhere for the water to go and when all that heavy rain came down, it all just ran off into the river – that’s what caused the big flood wave which came down into the city.” 

According to climate experts the risk of such compounds is increasing as more frequent weather events are happening, an event that would have previously been recorded every 30 or forty years is becoming closer to every ten years.