EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction 1. Introduction Today’s environmental challenges, including the protection of the health of our citizens, ecosystems and the economy, are forcing a fundamental reconsideration of how we produce and consume, how we invest and how we plan for the future. As we emerge from the pandemic crisis of 2020 and look to stimulate economic recovery, we need to do so through a ‘green investment’ lens and avoid lock-in, or a return, to carbon-intensive and otherwise unsustainable consumption and production behaviours and technologies. We live in a time of great uncertainty. Climate change, ecosystem loss and resource constraints, and the disruption that will flow from them, are challenging the established economic, social and natural structures of our world. This will alter our collective futures in ways that are not yet fully understood. Social and economic inequalities combined with natural climatic variations will mean that certain areas and communities will be disproportionately impacted. Today’s environmental challenges are demanding a fundamental reconsideration of how we produce and consume, how we invest, how we develop and how we plan for the future. We are also witnessing the erosion of biodiversity at an unprecedented scale and seem unable to stem this tide of destruction. We know collectively that this must change, which is reflected in global agreements such as the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity; in European initiatives such as the Environment Action Programmes (EAP) 1 and the European Green Deal; and in national initiatives such as the declaration of a climate and biodiversity emergency, the 2019 Climate Action Plan, Ireland 2040 and the many other plans and programmes in place to improve and protect our natural environment. 1 The 7th EAP is operational until the end of 2020 https://ec.europa. eu/environment/action-programme/. The European Commission in October 2020 launched a proposal for an 8th EAP https://ec.europa. eu/environment/pdf/8EAP/2020/10/8EAP-draft.pdf. Ireland, the Environment and the Pandemic The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 has challenged public and institutional structures in relation to our social, technical and administrative abilities to cope with societal disruption. It has also awakened a stronger appreciation of our connectedness to global events, as well as to the environment on a local scale (within 5 km of where we live). Media reports over this year of confinement are full with examples of young and old re-engaging with their environment, enhancing their appreciation for nature and benefiting from access to it. Research undertaken for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demonstrated that, among the citizens surveyed, the previously stated barriers to engaging with their local environment (lack of time from being at work, busy at home and poor weather) diminished in importance during the first half of 2020 (Kindermann et al. , 2020). The results of this survey also noted increases – in early 2020 relative to 2019 – of between 30 per cent and 45 per cent in the time spent in blue and green spaces for physical and mental health, with nearly half of the respondents reporting discovering new, or rediscovering old, green and blue spaces in their community. 23