Address by President Connolly at the Annual Conference of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society
Dublin City University St Patrick's Campus, 12 May 2026
A chairde,
Is mór an onóir dom, mar Uachtarán na hÉireann, a bheith anseo ag séú comhdháil bhliantúil Institiúid Aeráide agus Sochaí Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath.
Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Ollamh Dáire Keogh, Uachtarán na hOllscoile, as ucht an chuiridh.
Last Saturday marked seven years since Ireland declared a climate and biodiversity emergency (9th May 2019). This historic declaration followed years of activism by people of all ages on the ground, and was an acknowledgment, at the political level, that our planet is burning. Alongside the declaration was a commitment to transformative action, which became all the more urgent with the COVID pandemic.
In the seven years since the declaration, unfortunately we have seen report after report confirming that transformative change is certainly not happening at the scale and speed that is required. More particularly, last month, European State of the Climate Report 2025, compiled by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, among others, told us that “Europe is the fastest-warming continent, and the impacts are already severe”. The same report found that in 2025, the annual average sea surface temperature for the European region was the highest on record for the fourth consecutive year.
Furthermore, recent research published in the journal Science Advances, has shown that the critical Atlantic jet stream is significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought, bringing profound weather changes to Ireland and Europe, Africa and the Americas by the middle of the century.
And then we have today’s news from the World Weather Attribution Group, a network of international climate scientists. They tell us that 2026 could be the warmest year on record.
Further, that sea surface temperatures are approaching the highest level ever and that wildfires have already burned more than 150 million hectares in the first four months of the year. They note that this is 50% higher than the recent wildfire average and double the amount burned in 2024.
More specifically to Ireland, an assessment by the National Parks and Wildlife Service found that, as of late 2025, 90 percent of Ireland's natural habitats—including woodlands, grasslands, and coastal areas—are in “unfavourable” status.
Moreover, while we had about 500 Irish rivers classified as “pristine” in the 1980s, by 2019 the EPA informed us that just 20 rivers met that standard.
Ní féidir neamhaird a dhéanamh ar na fíricí atá curtha os ár gcomhair, agus ní féidir an fhírinne searbh a sheachaint níos faide. Tá faitíos orm, áfach, go bhfuil Bodhaire Uí Laoghaire ag cur as dúinn mar is léir nach bhfuil an t-eolas seo ag dul i bhfeidhm orainn faoi mar is cóir. Caithfear misneach a bheith againn chun dul i ngleic leis an uafás atá ag tarlú.
Given these stark facts, your work and research are all the more important. Indeed, your institute is the first academic research centre in Ireland devoted to addressing climate change from the perspective of the social sciences and humanities. This institute represents the holistic approach that is absolutely necessary if we are to address the existential threat posed by climate change. Your establishment in 2021 placed climate change at the heart of social sciences and the humanities.
In doing so, you reminded us that neither technological solutions nor incremental change on their own will suffice in saving the planet. The positive news is that the solutions are there, and you have acknowledged that. Those solutions of themselves, however, will not be sufficient. There has to be a recognition that we cannot continue to do business as usual.
Former President Mary Robinson captured the gravity of the challenge in her foreword to the Bohemian Cooperatives’ Building Community Wealth Strategy 2026 – 2029:
Ireland, like so many countries, is living through a time of deep and overlapping challenges. We are witnessing rising inequality, climate and biodiversity breakdown, and a widening sense that too many people feel shut out of the decisions that shape their lives. At such a moment, incremental thinking will not suffice. We need imagination, courage, and a renewed willingness to draw on the wisdom carried in our collective traditions and to build solutions from the ground up.”
Significantly, speaking of solutions from the ground up, it was courageous students – both young and older, in various educational institutions – who were the catalyst for the 2019 declaration of a climate and biodiversity emergency. Now more than ever, we need your courage and vision to question the dominant narrative that has led us to where we are.
Universities are well placed to collaborate and work with other visionary groups on the ground who are working for, and committed to, a more sustainable way of living. There are so many of them throughout every county in Ireland. I will just refer to my most recent engagement with one of these organisations, Bohemian Cooperatives, and their 3-year strategy for building community wealth.
That vision, which is shared by so many people and organisations, requires a paradigm shift, at the heart of which must be climate justice and the audacity to constantly question self-serving narratives.
In this regard I was struck by an article in the Irish Times by Ella McSweeney, where she urged us to ask different questions. When will we be able to swim in clean waters, and/or drink waters from our rivers and lakes without getting sick?
Of course, the elephant in the room is the normalisation of war, which could not happen without the vast military industrial complex. There are currently approximately 130 armed conflicts worldwide, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Significantly, when we hear of climate change, we rarely hear about the emissions caused by warfare, notwithstanding that they are inextricably linked. The deafening silence around this issue, speaks volumes and must be called out.
Tréaslaím libhse ar fad, lucht foirne agus mic léinn atá bainteach leis an Institiúid Aeráid agus Sochaí. Is obair fíor-thábhachtach agus luachmhar atá ar bun anseo agaibh. Ba mhaith liom buíochas ó chroí a ghabháil libh as an gcomhdháil thábhachtach agus tráthúil seo a thionóil.
Is cúis misnigh agus dóchais bhur saothar.
Go raibh maith agaibh