This is an extract from the most recent edition of Temperature Check, The Journal’s monthly climate newsletter. To receive Temperature Check to your inbox, sign up in the box at the end of this article.

The government’s Covid-19 inquiry is in the news this week – who’s chairing it, what powers it will have, and when it might be complete.

As the inquiry reflects on the shock of the pandemic and what we can learn about how to respond to any future virus outbreaks, there’s another threat to public health that the State could possibly be starting to take more seriously – climate change.

The Department of Health published a report last week by an expert steering group on emerging health threats, which has a range of recommendations about strengthening Ireland’s preparedness for public health crises.

The report identifies five broad types of health security threats to Ireland. Three relate to various types of diseases, the fourth is chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear events, and the fifth is the global climate crisis.

To date, it says, Ireland’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has been primarily on the lookout for infectious diseases – but it is “essential”, the report says, that Ireland’s surveillance systems now “employ an all-hazards approach incorporating environmental threats in addition to infectious disease”.

The expert steering group writes that “in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was natural that the immediate focus would be on infectious disease surveillance, and in particular on respiratory virus surveillance, but there is a risk that the opportunity will be missed to put integrated surveillance systems in place for environmental threats such as contamination of land, water, and air as well as the effects of climate change such as flooding and drought”.

“Climate change also has the potential to impact on patterns and frequency of infectious disease by resulting in changes in the distribution of disease or disease carrying vectors (such as mosquitos) or the increased transmission of temperature sensitive pathogens like Salmonella that are more likely to proliferate in food in warmer weather.”

It recommends that Ireland’s surveillance of health and environment-related risks should be integrated so that there can be strong work done to watch out for threats to Ireland’s health other than just infectious diseases, like the role of water and air quality and the effects of climate change.

The basis for thinking about climate change as a human health problem was made even clearer this week by a scientific study called The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, which does what it says on the tin – investigating the health impacts and threats of the climate crisis.

Of 15 climate change-related health hazards, exposures, and impacts that it measures (such as heat exposure, drought and wildfires), 10 of those reached new record-breaking levels in 2023.

More frequent heatwaves and droughts last year meant an additional 151 million people experienced moderate or severe food insecurity compared to annual figures from between 1981 and 2010.

For Ireland, one health threat posed by climate change is an increase in cold snaps, which can be detrimental for vulnerable groups like older people or homeless people.

That might sound counterintuitive, since when we talk about climate change, we’re often talking about heat, but climate change also means more instability and more extremes. For Ireland, it’s expected that this will manifest as more heatwaves during some parts of the year but also more cold snaps and intense rainfall at the other end of the spectrum.

Dr Karyn Morrissey is a Professor in Environment and Marine at the University of Galway and has been a contributing author to the annual Lancet Countdown reports since 2016.

Speaking to The Journal for Temperature Check, Dr Morrissey explained how those changes to Ireland’s weather patterns due to climate change are a concern for human health.

“When we’re speaking about increases in rain and flooding, we’re looking at widespread disruptions to the way we live our lives,” Dr Morrissey said.

“We’re going to be in a situation where certain sectors need to change completely. Our agricultural sector is one of those. It’s going to see huge impacts,” she said.

“We’re going to get to the point where, just like this spring, farmers are not able to sow crops and the harvest is decreased, which will have, in turn, direct impacts on our food security,” she said, describing food security and nutrition as a “main concern”.

“It’s not about people having their fancy veg like courgettes and aubergine – I mean real, systematic malnutrition over extended periods of time because of lack of food because it just won’t be there, irrespective of your income.”

Dr Morrissey also said that disruptions to the transport sector can have knock-on impacts to health in terms of connecting people with important services and supplies.

“Transport is the backbone of our economy. We’re going to be in a situation where it’s not just commuting that is impacted, which is frustrating enough, but how we move goods and services – not just your Amazon purchases, but key food supplies, medical supplies, and getting people to key services being very difficult.

“We are now in a situation where climate change is occurring and it’s about how bad we let it be. We need to mitigate it and adapt. One of the key changes we need to make is to speed up our transition to renewable energy. In terms of adaptation, we also need to start stress testing and ensuring that our key services are actually prepared for climate change.”

The Lancet Countdown report says that sufficient financial resources are available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero to secure a healthy, liveable future. However, despite the finances being available, they are not yet being allocated where they need to be. Governments and companies are still spending trillions of dollars on fossil fuel subsidies and harmful investment, it says.

Instead, that money should be redirected to clean renewable energy and towards supporting people’s health, livelihoods and wellbeing, the report says. As the situation currently stands, governments and companies are “fuelling the fire” by persisting to invest in fossil fuels, as well as high levels of emissions and delays in adaptation measures.