Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

361 Chapter 13: Environment and Industry Another project identified key climate change risks and opportunities facing Ireland’s business sectors, including chemicals, electronics and food manufacturing (Deignan et al ., 2022). By translating climate impacts into business and financial risk, opportunity and commercial imperatives, it is hoped that businesses will be encouraged to take appropriate action to ensure that they remain resilient (Deignan et al ., 2022). Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute has found that smaller Irish enterprises are less prepared for the climate transition – for instance, 83% of micro firms have no climate plan in place (ESRI, 2023). A key factor that appears to strongly motivate climate action is the proportion of company expenditure that is allocated to energy. 10. Conclusions For the past 30 years there has been a decrease in the main pollutants arising from industry in Ireland, such as emissions of SO x and NO x to air. At the same time, production and employment in the sector has increased overall. This decoupling of emissions from growth of the industry sector is the result of investment and technological progress, overseen by strong, integrated environmental regulation. The planned transition to more renewable energy sources, and away from combustion-sourced heating systems to electrification, is a shift that could see greenhouse gas emissions from industry significantly decrease. Decoupling greenhouse gas emissions from the growth of industry is essential to ensure that Ireland delivers on its environmental and economic goals. Achieving the targets and staying withing the ceilings for industry set out in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan will be a significant challenge but are necessary to fulfil our commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There are some sectors within Irish industry that must further improve their environmental performance. ■ The dairy processing sector needs to ensure that it prioritises environmental performance and improves compliance with limits on odour and water emissions. ■ Waste transfer site operators need to take a proactive approach in handling waste without creating nuisance impacts while legacy issues remain at closed landfill sites in the waste sector. The continued management of such sites is a challenge that needs to be prioritised by local authorities. ■ There is an urgent need for significant uptake of abatement techniques to control and reduce ammonia emissions to air from the intensive agriculture sector to ensure the protection of sensitive habitats in some parts of Ireland. Nationally, industry must operate within the statutory framework long established and implemented in Ireland. The continued operation of unauthorised commercial peat extraction at the expense of Ireland’s natural habitats is not acceptable and should cease. It has been 30 years since the EPA issued the first licence to industry, and there has been a significant shift in industry’s compliance and environmental performance in those 30 years. The presence of an established, structured environmental regulation system in Ireland, led by the EPA and other regulatory authorities, provides a stable and predictable setting for industry to operate in. Overall, Irish industry maintains a good level of compliance with environmental requirements. As envisaged in the European Green Deal, the implementation of the revised IED will drive further improvements in the environmental performance of industry. While improvements in compliance culture, reductions in emissions and environmental controls are welcome, the challenges of further reducing greenhouse gas emissions and resource use are significant.