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

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 A positive outcome from the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic is a notable increase in the standing of science and trust in professional evidence- based assessment in informing public policy and citizens’ behaviour. These authoritative voices have been important in guiding us through the challenges and solutions. There are useful lessons for safeguarding the environment agenda in this too. The pandemic challenge, although acute in nature, provides some knowledge that can be applied to chronic and incremental societal risks, in particular the need for whole-of-government and whole-of-society collaborative and integrated action on interconnected environmental challenges. The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on Ireland’s society and economy – the tragic loss of life and the distress that flows from that, the social disruption and the impact on businesses. The business impact has been seen not only in the specific sectors that were closed, but also in workplaces that remained open, in terms of the increased risk mitigation costs, and in the increased healthcare costs. The degree to which these acute stresses will impede national environmental policy ambitions – including the climate-neutral transition – remains to be seen. In addition to a reported re-engagement with nature, the pandemic has had some notable environmental consequences. In April, the Irish Waste Management Association reported a reduction of over 50 per cent in commercial waste and a reduction of up to 70 per cent in construction and demolition waste (O’Leary et al. , 2020). As expected, healthcare risk waste has increased, but other notable increases associated with confinement were seen in domestic waste collections, as well as in public use of civic amenity sites. Our cities became quieter and were less polluted by traffic, and there was an increase in environmental complaints (EPA, 2020a; O’Leary et al. , 2020). Some of these observations are summarised in Figure 1.1. 24