Introducing the ICSF:

The Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) was founded in 2016 and its members include Irish scientists, engineers and other professions. We are committed to identifying and disseminating the latest climate science to all with an open and enquiring mind, driven by the imperative of objectivity without vested interests. We are self-funded through modest personal contributions; to ensure scientific objectivity, we do not accept corporate or sector funding. 

We seek a sustainable future for Ireland and its people. Accordingly, we aim to better inform national energy and climate-related policymaking in the best long-term national interest through arranging lectures and engaging in relevant public consultations.

We advocate progressive policies to 2030, based on prudent energy efficiency and conservation, consistent with safeguarding our national economy, international competitiveness and environmental sustainability. Longer term policies to 2050 should be based on evolving technology, better-understood climate science and ongoing observations.


ICSF and Climate Science:

Earth’s climate has continually changed over its 4.5 billion-year history. In recent millennia and centuries, since the most recent Interglacial, there have been warm periods (such as in the Medieval, Roman and Minoan periods), with the coldest period within that timescale being the Little Ice Age, which ended about 1850. Since then, the planet has gradually warmed by about 1°C and sea level has risen by about 20cm.

Global temperature observations over the last 40 years indicate an average temperature increase of just over 0.1°C per decade, which if continued, points to a further temperature rise of about 1°C by 2100, probably less as the greenhouse effect reaches saturation. Global mean sea level observations, based on tide gauges for the last 100 years and on satellite data in the last 27 years indicate a steady rate of rise of 2-3mm/year, pointing to a further rise of about 25cm by 2100.

Part of this warming has been caused by anthropogenic GHG (Green House Gas) emissions, though recent research and observations indicate significantly lower climate sensitivity, that is, significantly less global temperature rise due to increasing emission levels than is predicted by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). It is also evident that there are solar-related and other natural influences on earth’s climate; the relative magnitudes of these influences may be comparable to, or possibly even greater than, those of GHG.  

ICSF has prepared an objective overview of the latest climate science click here, as also a critique of the recently-released IPCC Synthesis Report click here. A recent presentation by the ICSF Chair is linked here. The many real-world observations contained in both do not point to a climate emergency. In February 2024, ICSF submitted a critique of the EPA’s “Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment”, linked here

The ICSF scientific view coincides with those of the Dutch-based CLINTEL organization, which now includes over 1100 of the world’s leading climate scientists and professionals in over 30 countries. Based on this common conviction, several ICSF members have co-signed the CLINTEL World Climate Declaration “There is No Climate Emergency” (see https://clintel.org/ireland/).


Contact Us:

You are welcome to contact ICSF via ICSFcomm@gmail.com or at jim.obrien.csr@gmail.com