merrion street

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross T.D., has this week published Developing Resilience to Climate Change in the Irish Transport Sector, the first climate change adaptation plan for the transport sector.

The objective of this Plan is to better understand the potential implications of climate change for transport at a national, regional and local level by identifying potential vulnerability within our road, rail, aviation, ports and buses networks to the likely impacts of climate change.

Speaking today, Minister Ross said: “The extreme weather events that we have seen this year have made it clear that Ireland’s climate is changing and will continue to undergo change in the years to come. It is vital that the transport sector now positions itself to put in place measures to plan for the negative effects of climate change and take suitable action to limit potential damage in the future.

I am very pleased to note that the Plan highlights some of the significant climate adaptation work already underway within the sector which is safeguarding transport services and infrastructure from the impacts of climate change and their associated environmental, economic and social costs. While the Plan is not a complete roadmap towards future-proofing transport networks, it is an important step to enable our transition towards a climate resilient transport sector by 2050. 

An initial draft Plan was published on the Department’s website for public consultation in December 2016 for a period of six weeks and received 11 responses. A response to this public consultation identifying the main themes of interest is available here.