Extreme weather events like gale-force winds, high temperatures and flooding perhaps? Or if you are a farmer, it might be the shifting growing seasons, water shortages and the challenges posed by transitioning to a low carbon emitting way of producing.
That's why the new report from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is both a timely and an important piece of research. There is also potential for a very large but unspecified contingent liability for the State arising from the insurance industry, IFAC says, with the probability of the realisation of this liability increasing the more severe climate change becomes.
The cost of that non-compliance, in the form of payments under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme, could be up to €350 million a year up to 2030, and €700m annually after that. IFAC hints at this, referencing the possible introduction of other taxes on vehicle use, reductions in fossil fuel subsidies and changes to the electricity tax.
If the impacts of climate change accelerate and intensify, as they seem to be doing, we may face the prospect of having to do more and sooner, at a much greater cost.