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

Chapter 14: Environment, Health and Wellbeing Loss of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Healthy ecosystems provide essential food and biomass, help maintain the quality of our water, soils and air, regulate floods, absorb greenhouse gases and protect us from increasingly extreme weather patterns. Biodiversity matters for a whole variety of reasons: ethical, emotional, environmental and economic. It is the very foundation of our society and the basis of our economic success and wellbeing (EC, 2008). Despite many strategies and targets, Europe continues to lose biodiversity at an alarming rate and the aims of many policies will not be achieved (EEA, 2019b). The cumulative pressures of climate change, chemical use, emissions to air and water, exposure to noise, unsustainable resource use and excessive consumption, land use and urban expansion all act to increase vulnerability and accelerate deterioration. The World Economic Forum reports that biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are one of the biggest threats facing humanity in the coming decade (WEF, 2020). The health and wellbeing of our society and our economy depend on the services of our ecosystems; accordingly, the chronic degradation observed cannot be allowed to endure. In 2019 the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published a major global assessment on the status of ecosystems and biodiversity. The IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson, noted that: ‘The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.’ (IPBES, 2019). The IPBES global assessment also reviews the health dividend provided by nature and the risks associated with damage to natural systems. Aside from the obvious dividends, such as clean air, clean water and food provision, it was noted, for example, that 70 per cent of cancer drugs are natural or synthetic products inspired by nature and that approximately four billion people rely primarily on natural medicines. In May 2020 the European Commission published the latest EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, Bringing Nature Back into our Lives (EC, 2020), which pledges to show ambition to reverse biodiversity loss, lead the world by example and by action, and help agree and adopt a transformative post-2020 global framework at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. A principal ambition in this new EU strategy is that ‘the world should commit to the net-gain principle to give nature back more than it takes’. The health dividend flowing from secure ecosystems and thriving diversity is recognised in Ireland’s current National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021 (DCHG, 2017) and also in its National Health Strategy, which notes that delivering a healthier future will result in people living in a health-promoting sustainable environment (Government of Ireland, 2013). In the public consultation for the National Risk Assessment (Government of Ireland, 2019b) biodiversity emerged as a key national risk and as one of the most important priorities cited by respondents. Urbanisation Urbanisation is one of the key demographic ‘mega- trends’ that is shaping and defining our future world. It is estimated that, by 2050, two-thirds of the global population will live in urban centres. In Ireland, an estimated 63 per cent of the population currently lives in urban areas, and this number is set to rise to over 75 per cent by 2050 (UN, 2018) (Figure 14.11). The population is predicted to increase by 20 per cent to over 5.6 million by 2040 (ESRI, 2018). 9 Figure 14.11  Predicted percentage of Ireland’s population in urban and rural areas, 1950-2050 (Source: UN DESA, Population Division) 9 From 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects ©(2018) United Nations. Reprinted with the permission of the United Nations. https:// population.un.org/wup/Country-Profiles/. 377