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Ireland’s Environment 2012
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Summary and Main Challenges
Ireland’s Environment 2012 – An Assessment
, the
Environmental Protection Agency’s four-yearly state of
the environment report, provides an evidence-based
assessment of the current state of the environment in
Ireland and the pressures being placed on it. It outlines
the trends and changes in environmental quality as well
as the socio-economic activities that are linked with these
changes. Since the previous state of the environment
assessment in 2008 there have been significant new
policy and legislative advances in areas such as air
and waste, and in the broader context of sustainable
development.
The environment is a strategic and valuable asset for
Ireland and as such it must be protected and proactively
managed to ensure it forms the basis of Ireland’s
economic wellbeing and a healthy society. The overall
finding of
Ireland’s Environment 2012: An Assessment
is
that Ireland’s environment remains in a good condition,
although there are a number of areas of concern, and
Ireland faces a number of key challenges in the coming
years. The recent period of economic recession has
lowered pressure on the environment in areas such as
waste generation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
However, the overall challenge for Ireland is that as its
economy and key sectors develop and recover, they do
so in a sustainable way – decoupling economic growth
Executive Summary
Figure 1
Main Environmental Challenges
Putting the
environment
at the centre of
our decision
making
Implementing
environmental
legislation
Building a
resource-efficient
low-carbon
economy
Sustainable
Ireland
Valuing
and protecting
our natural
environment