A FIFTH of reptiles and almost a quarter of amphibians in Europe are threatened with extinction on the continent, analysis for the European Commission has shown.

THE European Union’s first nature law, the Birds Directive, celebrates its 30th anniversary tomorrow.

SOME 2,000 fish farming jobs can be created in coastal communities over the next five years, a national aquaculture conference was told.

IN your report headlined ‘Department warns An Bord Pleanála of risks from harbour incinerators’ (February 25), you quote the developer Indaver as saying “the incinerators are ‘must-have’ for this country if we want to avoid hefty EU levies for sending too much waste to landfill.”

Governments should provide free “energy audits” for all homeowners to help them save money and the environment, a report by MEPs said today.

AROUND 19% of timber imports into the European Union are thought to come from illegal sources, but new rules proposed by Brussels aim to reduce the risk.

EUROPEAN citizens should pay for the water they use in exactly the same fashion as petrol, heat and energy, European environment commissioner Stavros Dimas has said.

THERE is a growing recognition that the age of cheap, or in our case free, domestic water is coming to an end.

THE Irish Government is being sued by the European Commission because it has failed to introduce laws to ensure the polluter and not the taxpayer pays to clean up damage to the environment.

SCIENTISTS from the European Environment Agency have called for a halt to plans to increase the share of biofuels used in transport, to which EU leaders have committed themselves.

Governments from nearly 200 countries will launch discussions in Thailand tomorrow on forging a global warming agreement, a process that is expected to be fraught with disagreements over how much to reduce greenhouse gases and which nations should adhere to binding targets.

IRELAND will be asked to make huge cuts in its CO2 emissions and to vastly increase the amount of energy from renewables in the EU’s climate change plan to be published next week.

THE EU will have to review its plan to have 10% of its transport fuel from biofuels by 2020 after warnings of huge social and environmental side effects.

Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald today called on Minister for the Environment John Gormley to comply with European Commission demands and order a new Environmental Impact Assessment on the M3 at Tara.

The EU was accused of hypocrisy and weakness today for compromising on a car pollution crackdown just days after claiming it was taking the lead on climate change.

Humanity faces oblivion if it fails to confront global warming, the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned today.

Climate change delegates from Europe and America went head-to-head today over whether to include guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions in the plan for a new international agreement.

A Nobel-winning UN panel of scientists today issued a stark vision of human hardship and vanishing species in a world growing increasingly hot.

Campaigners opposed to the routing of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara today vowed to launch another High Court action to halt the road works.

The European Commission is reportedly expected to begin legal action against the Government today over the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara.

IT was pleasing to hear Environment Minister John Gormley voice his concerns about chewing gum and cigarette butts on our streets and his determination to clean up the mess.

ILLEGAL waste lagoons which the European Court ordered closed 27 months ago are still in operation.

An international petition calling for the protection of archaeological sites around the Hill of Tara is due to be presented to the Irish Embassy in Brussels today.

IRELAND is facing multi-million euro fines from the European Union from this autumn for a raft of environmental failures such as contaminated water.

THE planned demolition of the Lismullen national monument in Tara to make way for the M3 motorway is being investigated by the European Commission.

IRELAND is joining a group of five EU countries opposed to any use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in a move that could lead to clashes with Irish farming interests.

PLANNING rules that restrict building permission to those who speak Irish, are from the locality or work on the land, are to be challenged by the European Commission.

Far-reaching rules governing the European chemicals industry entered into force today, but environmentalists and consumer groups complained the legislation does not go far enough to protect human health.

AIR pollution is taking up to four months off the life of Irish citizens while a range of pollution from air to noise is responsible for up to 10% of illness, according to a EU report.

THERE are fears that An Daingean sewage treatment plant may not be able to cope with demands when the population grows hugely during the tourist season.

Greenpeace has described as “shocking” the latest report on global warming from a UN network of scientists.

IRELAND is facing massive daily fines for allowing drinking water to be contaminated with human and animal waste, more than four years after being found guilty of breaching EC directives by the European Court of Justice.

MORE than a quarter of Irish citizens believe the way out of the energy and climate change crisis is to increase the amount of nuclear energy in Europe, according to the latest EU-wide survey.

Ireland was ordered to alter its national plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Kyoto Protocol, the European Commission confirmed today.

FARMERS can’t be faulted for Ireland’s poor progress towards Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gases.

WE could yet pay a high price for failing to protect nature sites.

IRELAND runs the risk of incurring substantial fines if it fails to fully meet an 11-year-old deadline to protect nature sites, the European Commission has warned.

WITH temperatures hitting a sizzling 30º Celsius during the recent heat wave, we were given a taste of what summers will be like in Ireland as the 21st century progresses.

Ireland faces legal action unless it fully protects wild salmon from over-fishing, the European Commission warned today.

THE EU Commissioner for the Environment is investigating why this country has failed to remove all waste from, and fill in, illegal lagoons, despite being ordered to do so 13 months ago by the European Court.

The European Union is comfortably on track to reach gas emission targets required under the Kyoto Protocol, the bloc said today.

European Union politicians are preparing for a showdown over a bill overhauling the EU’s chemicals policy, one of the most far-reaching and intensely lobbied pieces of legislation in recent years.