Ireland has EU's second highest per-person greenhouse gas emissions

Ireland also lags near the very bottom of EU countries when it comes to forest cover. Photo: Denis Minihane

Ireland had the second-highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the EU two years ago with agriculture and transport the highest emitters, and it also lags near the very bottom of EU countries when it comes to forest cover.

That is just some of the data highlighted in the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) environmental indicators in Ireland which include greenhouse gas emissions, water, land use, and population.

The CSO data shows that in 2019, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions were 59.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, some 10% higher than the 1990 figure, and only behind Luxembourg as the highest emitter in the EU. 

This is the fifth edition of Environmental Indicators Irelandhttps://t.co/uNesrbxyUQ #CSOIreland #Ireland #Environment #Buildings #EnergyRatings #Energy #EnvironmentalSubsidies #EnvironmentalAccounts #NetworkedGas #GasConsumption #Climate pic.twitter.com/7Clic6wMLb

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) September 30, 2021

Agriculture was the sector with the highest greenhouse gas emissions here in Ireland at 35% of the total in 2019, followed by transport at 20%, it said. 

In 2020, just 11.2% of Ireland’s total land area was covered by forestry, the third-lowest proportion across the 28 EU states. However, it has been steadily improving, the data shows, with the area under forest increasing from under 6.8% in 1990. 

Grassland accounted for 59.3% of total land use in Ireland in 2019, down from 61.9% in 1990, while land under settlement was 1.8%.

Ireland is only better for forest cover than Malta and the Netherlands in the EU, while Finland had the highest proportion at 66.2% in 2020.

Biodiversity

This country also fares poorly when it comes to biodiversity, the data shows. In 2019, Ireland had the fourth-lowest proportion of total land area across the bloc that was designated as Special Protected Areas (SPA) under the EU Birds Directive at just 6.2%.

It also had the eighth-lowest proportion of total land area designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive at 10.2%. Croatia at 30.2% had the highest proportion of total land classified as SPAs in 2019, while Malta was the lowest at just over 5%.

In relation to SACs, Slovenia had 32.7% of its total land area designated, the highest in the EU. The UK, now exited from the bloc, had just 5.4%.

Recycling and energy

When it comes to rubbish, municipal waste in Ireland peaked at 3.4 million tonnes in 2007, up from 2.7 million tonnes in 2001. It fell to 2.6 million tonnes in 2014, before increasing to 2.9 million tonnes in 2018, the CSO said.

Renewable energy accounted for 36.5% of electricity generation in Ireland in 2019, close to the EU average of 34.2%, the CSO said, with such sources used in transport growing from almost nil in 2006 to 8.9% in 2019. Biodiesel accounted for 90% of renewable energy sources used in transport in 2019, it added.

The discrepancy in fuel between ordinary citizens and aviation is laid bare in the data, with consumers of petrol paying an average effective rate of €258.6 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted, the CSO said. In contrast, carbon dioxide emissions from jet kerosene were charged at €0.08 per tonne due to the tax exemption for commercial aviation.

From a global standpoint, the data shows that the world's population grew from just 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 7.8 billion some 70 years later.

"The share of global population accounted for by Africa increased from 9% to 17% over this period, while that of Europe fell from 22% to 10%. Asia was the most populous region with 60% of the World’s population in 2020," the CSO said.

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