The EU has published its Annual Environmental Policy Review for last year. It is a 3-part document, the first part dealing with policy development, the second showing data and trends and the third dealing with policy actions in each member state. Overall Ireland fares reasonably well in this report, reflecting the fact that the Irish environment is clean for the most part and especially in comparison to some other EU states.
Ireland scored well in the following areas;
•Electricity produced from renewable energy sources – Ireland’s percentage of electricity from wind grew from 1 to 8% in the period 2000 - 2008.
•Energy intensity – Ireland is one of the best in the EU alongside Denmark with an energy intensity in 2008 of 107 kgoe/€1,000 GDP. Our energy intensity has fallen by 20% since 2000.
•Area of land under agri-environmental commitment – the high participation rates of Irish farmers in the REPS agri-environmental scheme is reflected in a high score for Ireland.
•Urban population exposure to air pollution by particles – Ireland’s clean air is reflected in this score.
•Recycling rates for packaging waste – Ireland is above the EU average for this index and is much better than many EU member states.
Ireland scored poorly in the following areas;
•Share of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption – Ireland’s share was less than 5% while some countries were over 30%.
•Freight transport – Ireland transports more than 90% of its freight by road. The corresponding figure for Latvia is 39%.
•Area of land under organic farming – Ireland, at less than 4%, is one of the lowest in the EU.
•Air emissions of Nitrogen Oxides – Ireland anticipates that it will exceed the EU 2010 ceiling by 30% or more.
•Municipal waste generation – the figure for Ireland has increased by more than 20% since 2000.
•Environmental taxes as a share of total taxation – in the period 1995 – 2008 Ireland lowered both environmental and labour taxes as a share of total tax revenue.
•Infringements of EU environmental legislation – Ireland was one of the worst in the EU with more than 30 open infringements at the end of 2009.
Part 3 of the report, dealing with Ireland’s policy responses, mentioned the Framework for Sustainable Economic Recovery, the ‘New Green Deal’, the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2009 -2020, the bio-fuels obligation scheme, the Action Plan to change the transport mix, the National Cycle Policy Framework, the introduction of a carbon tax and water charges as well as tax breaks for electric cars, a car scrapping scheme, an energy efficiency campaign and changes to waste levies.
Overall it is clear that much of the progress in the area of environmental protection in Ireland is driven by EU legislation and these annual reviews provide a useful snapshot of how we compare to our EU colleagues.
The report can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/policyreview.htm
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