Climate Change: Meeting the challenge of adaptation

The purpose of this paper is to provide information to the engineering community on where we currently stand in our knowledge of the impacts of climate change in Ireland. It seeks to identify what we know and where the key uncertainties lie in relation to climate variables and impacts that are critical to designing robust engineering strategies for the future. Rather than trawl the substantial literature in the limited time available it provides some of the important findings from the key reports produced for Ireland in recent years, particularly Sweeney et al., 2008, McGrath et al., 2008 and Hulme at al., 2002. The thrust behind these reports has been to inform policy development in adapting to climate change. It is hoped that these findings will serve as a starting point for dialogue between the climate change research community and the engineering community about where we need to go from here in order to refine and provide the best information as possible for a profession with a substantial degree of responsibility in ensuring successful adaptation to climate change for this and future generations in Ireland