Met Eireann forecaster Joanna Donnelly has warned that the whole world is under a "red warning" due to climate change.
The expert said that we are now in an "emergency situation" and "we need to act now".
Speaking on RTE's Claire Byrne Live, Donnelly said: "I was here before, a few years ago, we were talking about a red level warning, we had issued a red level warning for Ophelia and everyone responded exactly as we needed them too.
"They acted immediately that day and they sat down and they stayed at home and lives were saved, countless lives were saved.
"Now, after the IPCC issued the report, that's the United Nations, when that report came out, the Secretary General issued a red warning, a global red warning, that's the United Nations. That's a global code red.
"We are at that point, we are in an emergency situation. And we need to act.
"The good thing is, the piece of hope that I have is, as a society we demonstrated that we can react in an emergency situation. We can adapt and we can change."
It comes after a leading climate change expert told the Irish Mirror that Ireland is "running out of time" to make a change before the climate emergency puts over 70,000 homes at risk of going underwater in the next three decades.
According to their projections, the east coast is set to bear the brunt of the damage.
Dublin will be the most affected county in terms of the number of addresses expected to be impacted by extreme coastal water levels, with 23,435 properties at risk. Louth (11,248) will be second most affected - but that results as 20% of residential addresses in the Wee County being at risk.
