Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

454 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance Overall, Ireland performs poorly relative to other Member States on 15 out of the 26 indicators for which country- specific information is available. This notably includes all of the ‘Biodiversity and ecosystems’ and ‘Climate change mitigation’ indicators, as well as many of the indicators for ‘Enabling conditions’, ‘Living well, within the planetary boundaries’ and ‘Environmental and climate pressures related to EU production and consumption’. Ireland performs relatively well compared with other Member States on just three of the 26 indicators, namely ‘Premature deaths due to exposure to air pollution’, ‘Energy consumption change’ and ‘Water exploitation index plus’ (indicating that water scarcity is not prevalent in Ireland). Overall, this high-level benchmarking exercise indicates that Ireland is lagging behind many other Member States on making progress with the 8th EAP objectives. It is particularly notable that Ireland performs poorly relative to other Member States on all of the ‘Enabling conditions’ indicators (environmental taxes, environmental protection expenditure, fossil fuel subsidies, green bonds and an eco-innovation index), suggesting that Ireland needs accelerated action to put in place the supporting conditions, including financial, to move towards the 2030 objectives in the 8th EAP and European Green Deal. Summary assessment of Ireland’s performance Taking account of the findings and trends outlined in the previous sections, Table 16.1 presents a summary assessment of Ireland’s performance on the five key policy areas of climate, air, nature, water, and circular economy and waste. Relevant indicators are used to illustrate the current status or level of compliance and the outlook for or prospect of Ireland meeting the relevant policy objectives/targets. For some of the selected indicators shown in Table 16.1, the outlook is positive, with Ireland considered likely to achieve the relevant policy objectives or targets – this includes bathing water quality, groundwater quality, several air pollutants and landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste. However, for a considerable number of the indicators listed, the outlook is negative, with Ireland considered not on track to reach targets or policy objectives – this includes greenhouse gas emissions, urban waste water treatment, circular material use rate and all of the nature indicators. For the remaining indicators listed in Table 16.1, the outlook is considered uncertain. Overall, the outlook for the climate and nature policy areas is regarded as negative, while the outlook for the air, water and circular economy policy areas is uncertain. Table 16.1  Current assessment and outlook for Ireland across key environmental policy areas INDICATOR CURRENT ASSESSMENT OUTLOOK NOTES CLIMATE Greenhouse gas emissions Ireland was the third biggest net greenhouse gas emitter per capita in the EU in 2022. The latest greenhouse gas emissions projections indicate that Ireland is projected to achieve a 29% reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and is therefore not on track to meet the national 51% emissions reduction target (EPA, 2024d). While progress is being made in all sectors, the pace of emissions reductions is far too slow to meet national and international climate goals. Renewable energy share Although Ireland increased its renewable energy share (RES) to 13.1% in 2022 (up from 10.7% in 2018), this is the lowest level in the EU and well below the EU average of 23% (SEAI, 2023). Significant progress has been made in increasing the share of renewables in electricity generation, whereas there remains a marked distance to RES targets for both transport and heating. Ireland is not on track to meet the binding EU-wide target for overall RES of 42.5% by 2030.