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

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 CURRENT ASSESSMENT: Summary assessment of current environmental performance, policy and implementation in Ireland Very poor/significant environmental and/or compliance challenges to address Poor/environmental and/or compliance challenges to address Moderate/on track generally/local or occasional challenges Good/mainly achieving objectives Very good/fully achieving objectives OUTLOOK: Current prospect of meeting policy objectives and/or targets Largely not on track to meet policy objectives and targets. Significant challenges remain to achieving full compliance. Systemic and transformative change needed. Partially on track to achieving full compliance or measures in place or planned that will improve the situation. However, the outlook is dependent on existing and planned actions, measures and plans being fully implemented and effective. Largely on track to achieving full compliance. Measures in place provide prospect of meeting policy objectives and targets. 3. Ireland in a European Context The 2020 state of Europe’s environment report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) (published in 2019) adds to the growing body of evidence from international organisations advocating for more urgency in protecting the environment, safeguarding biodiversity and tackling climate change (EEA, 2019). The evidence in this EEA report resonates with that outlined in other recent significant publications, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report on biodiversity (IPBES, 2019), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) reports on climate (IPPC, 2018, 2019) and the Green Deal from the European Commission (EC, 2019a). According to the EEA, ‘the overarching challenge of this century is how we achieve development across the world that balances societal, economic and environmental considerations’ (EEA, 2019). Sustainability needs to become the guiding principle for ambitious and coherent policies and actions across society. The EEA report suggests that the focus now must be on scaling up, speeding up, streamlining and implementing the many solutions and innovations – both technological and social – that already exist, while stimulating additional research and development, catalysing behavioural shifts and, vitally, listening to and engaging with citizens. The EEA outlines that ‘achieving the EU’s 2050 sustainability vision is still possible, but it will require a shift in the character and ambition of actions. That means both strengthening established policy tools and building on them with innovative new approaches to governance’ (EEA, 2019). The EEA has identified seven key areas to get Europe back on track to achieve its 2030 and 2050 goals and ambitions (Topic Box 16.2). These seven key areas cover complex issues that Ireland is also grappling with, such as water quality, air quality in urban areas, resource use, climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem damage and environmental risks to health and wellbeing. The EEA’s call for systemic change, founded on the principles of sustainable development, equally applies to Ireland. The EEA also provides data that allow Ireland’s environmental performance to be benchmarked against that of other European countries. This is done through its online environmental indicator series. 3 3 https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/#c0=30&c12- operator=or&b_start=0 428