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

Chapter 15: Environmental Performance, Policy and Implementation Integration and Policy Coherence While there is a growing recognition of the need for more joined-up policymaking to tackle the complex and interdependent nature of environmental problems, actual mechanisms for promoting environmental and sectoral policy integration and coherence are not widely applied globally (UN, 2019). There is certainly scope for greater application of statutory assessments such as SEA and Appropriate Assessment, or non-statutory forms of sustainability appraisal, to improve the mainstreaming of environmental considerations into sectoral plans and programmes, such as those listed in Figure 15.2. To be effective, this integration needs to happen both in a vertical direction at different levels of the decision-making process, from national down to local level, and horizontally across sectoral decision-making, including transport, the built environment, energy, agriculture, etc. Ultimately, however, more coherent policies, legislation and plans are needed both at European and at national level, instead of the ‘silo-thinking’ that has been characteristic of the past. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on all countries to enhance policy coherence as an essential means of implementation for all the SDGs (SDG Target 17.14). The OECD has published recommendations designed to assist governments’ efforts to enhance policy coherence for sustainable development and develop institutional mechanisms to align and coordinate actions among levels of government. Recommendations include encouraging formal governance arrangements and informal working methods that support effective communication between ministries and departments, and between ministries and other public sector bodies under their aegis; the use of high-level coordinating mechanisms; building capacity in public administrations and aligning training strategies and programmes with the principles and integrated nature of the SDGs; and engaging proactively with stakeholders in different phases of the policy cycle (OECD, 2019). As part of efforts to improve policy coherence and resolve policy inconsistences and conflicts, environmentally harmful policies and incentives also need to be identified and resolved, including aspects relating to Ireland’s system of subsidies and taxes (e.g. subsidies on fossil fuels that hinder emissions reduction efforts and in fact promote pollution). The Commission has repeatedly stressed that there is potential for Ireland to improve how its tax system can support environmental objectives (EC, 2019b). Developing Links between Land Use, Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection There have been important recent developments in Ireland’s spatial planning arena, including a new National Planning Framework with a long-term outlook to 2040, the establishment of Regional Assemblies to implement spatial planning decisions at a regional level, and the development of integrated metropolitan planning and transport policies. Another significant development has been the establishment of the Office of the Planning Regulator, an independent body, to provide oversight of regional and local-level plan-making and ensure that this is consistent with national and regional policies, which has climate action as a key part of its assessment criteria. The development of Ireland’s first National Marine Planning Framework, currently under development, is another important milestone towards making informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marine resources sustainably. Several chapters in this report have highlighted the need for more integration around land use management to serve as a means of coordinating how people, nature, food production, energy production and other economic activities can coexist and be supported to be developed in a sustainable manner. A new, more coordinated approach to land use management and all that this includes could be developed to steer Ireland’s response to climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental challenges in an integrated way in the years and decades ahead. Land mapping (land cover and land use) and environmental sensitivity mapping are the processes and tools needed to gather information for effective land management. In Ireland, the EPA and OSI are undertaking a dedicated national land cover programme. This aims to supplement previous maps such as CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) with a national land cover map that is much more detailed in spatial resolution and classification structure. This work is covered in more detail in Chapter 5. The application of an SEA can also be effective in ensuring that environmental and climate considerations are integrated into the development of public plans and programmes. An Environmental Sensitivity Mapping Webtool has been developed with EPA funding to support the SEA processes in Ireland. 9 The webtool can highlight the relative environmental sensitivity of different areas and can be used ‘to provide early warning, inform on the potential for land use conflicts and, in this way, provide a critical evidence basis for sectoral planning discussions and for developing alternatives that avoid or minimise potentially incompatible or unsustainable zonings’ (González Del Campo et al. , 2019). 9 https://www.enviromap.ie/ 405