The Green Party has said climate change is no longer a problem of the future, but is affecting the people of Ireland right now.

The party has made the comments as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Met Éireann and the Marine Institute today (Thursday, August 12) published ‘The Status of Ireland’s Climate’ report.

The report finds that global warming has resulted in Ireland’s climate becoming warmer and wetter, and that the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide – has continued to increase since 2012 with long-term implications for the climate. 

The key land changes according to the report are as follows:

Minister of State for land use and biodiversity, Pippa Hackett said: “As a farmer, and as someone who lives in rural Ireland, today’s report is not a surprise.

"We need to focus now on addressing climate change head on. The government will shortly publish the Climate Action Plan 2021 and I am looking forward to this outlining the measures we need to take to reach our 2030 targets," she added.

Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, said: “This report brings the findings of this week's IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] assessment much closer to home.

"There is a huge task ahead of us, and the climate bill has set that out in law. Now, it's down to all of us - government, communities, farmers, foresters, businesses, NGOs, everyone - to work together and deliver the change we need."

Minister Noonan added that healthy ecosystems capture and store carbon in bogs, woodlands, and oceans, and are the first and best line of defence against extreme weather events.