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

Chapter 16: Conclusions SOE 7: Water Quality Improve the water environment and tackle water pollution locally at a water catchment level. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? The water quality in Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries needs to be better protected through evidence-based measures, integrated water catchment-based projects and initiatives and by reducing the amount of nutrients ending up in water courses. SOE 8: Marine Reduce the human-induced pressures on the marine environment. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? As an island nation with an extensive marine area, Ireland needs to ensure that robust governance and legal frameworks are in place to protect the marine environment. SOE 9: Clean Energy Ireland needs to move rapidly away from the extensive use of fossil fuels to the use of clean energy systems. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? The emissions from the combustion of mainly imported fossil fuels are damaging for our health and our environment and drive climate change. The transition from reliance on fossil energy to a clean energy future for heating, electricity and transport is essential for the protection of human health, the climate and the environment and has multiple benefits for sustainable development and energy security. SOE 10: Environmentally- sustainable Agriculture An agriculture and food sector that demonstrates validated performance around producing food with a low environmental footprint. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? A more holistic farm management and water catchment-level management approach, encompassing all environmental pressures, will be fundamental to progress towards a more environmentally- sustainable and carbon-neutral food production system. SOE 11: Water Services Drinking water and wastewater infrastructure must meet the needs of our society. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? Action is needed nationally to address the underlying causes for the delays in delivering improvements in drinking water and urban wastewater infrastructure. Addressing the legacy of under-investment and fixing the shortcomings highlighted in successive EPA reports on drinking water and urban wastewater need to be prioritised. The resilience of water-related infrastructure must also improve to guard against the impacts of weather events and climate extremes on water services and the water environment. System Change – Delivery on Sectoral and Societal Outcomes Needs to be Accelerated SOE 12: Circular Economy Move to a less wasteful and circular economy where the priority is waste prevention, reuse, repair and recycling. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? Changing our behaviours on resource consumption, waste management and recycling are actions that everybody, from business to individuals, can take to protect the environment. SOE 13: Land Use Promote integrated land-mapping approaches to support decision- making on sustainable land use. ACTIONS – WHAT IS NEEDED? The development of an integrated national approach to land mapping could support better decision-making on land use and management practices. It could contribute significantly to mapping land use change and managing competing pressures on the environment, such as agriculture, urbanisation, tourism and recreation, energy projects, carbon sinks, ecosystem services and space for nature. 433