A lot of work to do for a green future

IRELAND will be well represented at the UN climate change conference which gets underway in Copenhagen today, with Taoiseach Brian Cowen and representatives of various government departments due to attend, but how have we been performing on the environment in general?

Pressures continue to grow, as instanced by the devastation caused by recent flooding. And, while progress has undoubtedly been made in some areas, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The last major report by the EPA, titled Ireland’s Environment 2008, analysed our performance over the previous four years. Though concluding that Ireland’s environmental quality is good, it clearly stated we are not progressing at the rate we need to.