Climate Ireland

Summary

Climate Ireland is a service that connects and integrates scientific research, policy making and adaptation practice for the purposes of enhancing adaptation decision making in Ireland. Climate Ireland’sremit is it to support national adaptation to the impacts of climate change and specifically to enable Sectors (Government Departments) and Local Authorities to produce their respective Adaptation Plans.

Climate Ireland is directly supporting the Ireland’s Local Authorities, Government Departments and State Agencies in the development and implementation of adaptation strategies. This support comprises of three main interrelated components:

• Climate Ireland Online Platform (http://www.climateireland.ie):The Climate Ireland online platform is recognised as Ireland’s one-stop web-based source of climate and adaptation information. The platform provides information to increase awareness and understanding of climate change and adaptation (Getting Started), the climate and adaptation information required to develop adaptation plans (Information and Data), and tailored wizards and tools to support the development of adaptation plans in accordance with the best available information and data, national policy and guidance (Plan and Manage);
• Policy and Planning Support:Climate Ireland works directly with Government Departments and State Agencies to inform policy and develop policy and decision-making supports in line with international best practice and identified user needs;
• Capacity Building:Climate Ireland develops and delivers training programmes to support the development and implementation of adaptation strategies and plans. These programmes are developed in consultation with Government Departments, State Agencies and the Local Authority Sector. Climate Ireland directly supports sectoral and local adaptation planning teams in the development of their adaptation strategies.

Host Organisation: Climate Irelandisdelivered by the MaREI Centre for Marine Energy and Climate (MaREI), Environmental Research Institute (ERI), University College Cork (UCC) with housing and technical support from the Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC), National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).

Launch date: 2012.

Update status: Ongoing update with last major release in September 2020.

Funding: Through three project phases, Climate Ireland was funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2018, Climate Ireland became an operational resource/service and is funded by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and EPA.

Team: The Climate Ireland Team comprises Jeremy Gault (Co-ordinator), Barry O’Dwyer (Lead Climate Adaptation Scientist), James Fitton (Information Officer/GIS Specialist), Declan Dunne (Senior Developer), Dan Casey (Junior Developer).

Main functions:

• Raising awareness on the need for climate change adaptation
• Providing guidance on how to undertake adaptation
• Providing information and data for adaptation decision-making
• Providing decision-support tools for adaptation decision-making
• Sharing adaptation solutions and case studies

Intended audiences:

• National-level decision makers / national government
• City and regional-level decision-makers / local government

Focus sectors for the platform:

• Health
• Agriculture
• Forests and other ecosystems
• Infrastructure / built environment

Why the platform was established

Climate Ireland was established to integrate existing climate information to support adaptation planning at national and local levels.