Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

23 Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction 1. Introduction 1 synthetic chemicals including plastics This report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland’s State of the Environment Report 2024 , presents current information on the quality of Ireland’s environment. Our previous 4-year assessment in the series, published in 2020, found that the outlook for Ireland’s environment was not good. We urged the need for a decade of action and transformation, particularly in the context of escalating climate and biodiversity emergencies. We argued that sustained and focused action would be needed to achieve sustainability not only across sectors such as agriculture, energy, transport and industry but also across the whole of society. The assessment also highlighted the greater awareness of the positive benefits of a clean environment for both health and wellbeing (EPA, 2020). From an environment and climate viewpoint, a similar conclusion was put forward by the European Environment Agency in its 4-year assessment, The European Environment – State and Outlook 2020 , which stated that Europe and the world face urgent, unprecedented sustainability challenges that require systemic solutions (EEA, 2019). This report painted a bleak picture of the EU’s prospects of meeting its policy objectives. The seven hottest days since records began in the 1850s were recorded in July 2023. The global average temperature over the past 12 months (July 2023 to June 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.76°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.64°C above the 1850- 1900 pre-industrial average (Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2024). In line with global trends, Ireland’s annual average temperature has increased by approximately 1°C over the last 100 years, with 16 of the 20 warmest years occurring since 1990, and 2023 being the hottest year on record (Thorne et al. , 2023). About 1 million species are at direct risk of extinction, prompting experts to argue that the Earth is already experiencing a sixth ‘mass extinction event’ (IPBES, 2019). There are an estimated 350,000 different types of manufactured chemicals on the global market (Wang et al. , 2020). Pollution levels from chemicals and new entities 1 alone exceed our ability to monitor their extent and impact on the planet (Persson et al. , 2022). These are all evidence of the triple planetary crisis – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – and a stark reminder of the environmental challenges facing humanity (UNEP 2020, 2022). Environmental risks – as identified by 1500 global leaders across academia, business, government, international community and civil society – continue to dominate the risks landscape (WEF, 2024). The World Economic Forum reports that extreme weather events, critical changes in Earth systems, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and natural resource shortages are the top four threats facing humanity in the coming decade (WEF, 2024). 2. Wider context of protecting Ireland’s environment A broad range of EU directives and regulations provide a framework for the management of our environment. These legal instruments and their implications for Ireland are outlined in more detail in each of the relevant thematic chapters in this report. The EU has set out clear ambitions for decarbonisation, with a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, supported by the comprehensive Fit for 55 legislation package, and the long-term objective of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, as set out in the European Green Deal policy initiatives and anchored in European Climate Law (EC, 2019). Associated with the EU Green Deal there has been extensive legislation strengthening traditional EU climate, energy and environmental policy instruments with brand new policy instruments. The latter include the Just Transition Fund, a new, separate Emissions Trading System (ETS 2) covering buildings and road transport, the Social Climate Fund, and the world’s first Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (Figure 1.1).