LAST UPDATE | 3 Oct 2024

THERE ARE “SERIOUS deficits” in the government’s environment legislation and policy programmes, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated.

The EPA has released an in-depth State of the Environment Report looking at all areas of Ireland’s environment and climate policy, identifying problems and advising what changes need to be made.

It outlines that “serious deficits remain in Ireland’s implementation of environmental legislation and related plans and programmes” and that “environmental policy responses to date have been insufficient to halt or reverse environmental decline”.

“We need to scale up and speed up the implementation of measures and critical infrastructure in energy, transport, waste and water to protect our environment and human health,” the EPA says. 

Ireland is currently performing poorly on climate, nature, water quality and circular economy markers, the report has found.

The EPA assessed Ireland’s performance in various areas of environmental policy and found that none of them are yet where they need to be, nor are they firmly on track to meet goals and targets.

The best performing area was air quality – which the EPA ranked as ‘moderate’, saying that Ireland is largely compliant with air quality standards for many pollutants but missing WHO and EU standards for others.

Its assessment of nature said that Ireland is doing ‘very poor’, marking no improvement in the rating of nature policy since 2020.

Protected habitats and bird populations are deteriorating and Ireland isn’t on track to achieve policy objectives for nature.

Similarly, the outlook for achieving climate goals is weak and performance in the area has been ‘poor’.

There has been progress in beginning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve climate adaptation, which has moved the assessment from ‘very poor’ in 2020 to ‘poor’ in 2024, but the situation still leaves much to be desired.

To meet 2030 and 2050 climate targets, there will need to be full implementation of the Climate Action Plan, plus additional measures.

Water quality, the circular economy and waste are also in a poor position.

EPA Director General Laura Burke has said progress has been made but it is “nowhere near good enough”.

“We are always playing catch-up. We now have virtually no seriously polluted rivers, but we have hardly any pristine ones left, either. We now recycle more, but produce more waste than ever and export much of it,” Burke said.

“We are taking positive actions across multiple fronts, but they are not keeping pace with the growing pressures, and our environment is being squeezed. Increments now are not best use of scarce time and resources: We need to make a fundamental shift.”

Gaps and shortfalls

The sweeping report highlights a myriad of failings and problems in Ireland’s climate and environmental policy.

For instance, there are currently nine Court of Justice of the European Union cases and 16 infringements open against Ireland for failures in implementing EU environmental legislation.

Our consumption of material items is increasing but our recycling rates are not keeping pace and it’s likely that Ireland won’t be compliant with EU recycling targets.

85% of Ireland’s protected habitats and nearly one-third of protected species of flora and fauna are in unfavourable status, more than half of native plant species are in decline and more than 50 bird species are of high conservation concern. The leading causes of the declines are changes in agricultural practices (like intensification), pollution, spread of invasive species, and climate change.

Fishing at unsustainable levels is impacting habitats and the food chain, while in farming, there is “no clear evidence” that the measures currently being taken will be enough to achieve the scale of environmental outcomes that are needed.

And crucially, Ireland is not currently projected to achieve its 2030 emissions reductions targets or to meet national or EU reduction targets.

To begin to address the problems, the EPA is calling on the government to develop a national policy position on the environment and to rigorously implement environmental plans and programmes.

There needs to be a transformation of the energy, transport, food and industrial sectors and more investment in water, energy, transport and waste management infrastructure, the report details.

Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan said this morning that he “welcomes and agrees with” the report.

“We really have to address the environmental challenge we face for our future, for our health, for our security. I welcome that they recognise there has been progress, particularly in this government. We have started to change. We can do it in this country. But we need to go so much further,” Ryan said.

He said in relation to the EPA’s call for a national policy position: “Government will respond. We’ve actually been doing that. I’m going to go to my Government colleagues next week and circulate a memo that we have been working on, which will actually set out exactly that: Bring together all the policies that we’re introducing and put it into a coherent economic plan for the country, for our people.”

“And then we have to go further because there is a leap needed. We’ve been taking good strides in the last four years, particularly in this government, but that needs to hasten, to pick up speed and make a real leap,” the minister said.

“We have to think of the environment. In everything we do, we have to put it centre stage. That’s what this state of the environment report says. I agree with it. That’s why our party exists, is to make that happen.”