Posts tagged ‘Environment’
Environment: Jeremy Oppenheim: Ireland’s global green opportunity
Monday, October 29th, 2012The world economy is fundamentally changing, making it impossible to separate economic and environmental decision-making, McKinsey’s Jeremy Oppenheim tells Environment Ireland. With commodity prices set to remain high and the global middle class set to bulge, a new focus on resource efficiency and changes in production management leave Ireland well-placed. This was the message from Jeremy Oppenheim, senior partner at McKinsey and head of the company’s global sustainability and resource productivity initiative, when he addressed delegates at Environment Ireland. The growing markets...[full story]
Environment: Climate adaptation: Humberto Delgado Rosa interview
Monday, October 29th, 2012The European Commission’s Humberto Delgado Rosa talks to Stephen Dineen about the need to adapt to climate change now and the economic benefits of adaptation. Irrespective of the difficulties in securing a global response to mitigating climate change, Humberto Delgado Rosa understands from six years as Portuguese Environment Minister (2005-2011) how hard it is to even get economies to consider adapting to its likely effects. Yet as DG Climate Action’s Director of Mainstreaming Adaptation and Low Carbon Technology, Delgado Rosa’s task is to co-ordinate EU adaptation and to encourage...[full story]
Environment: New territory in environmental protection: James Curran interview
Monday, October 29th, 2012Chief Executive of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency Professor James Curran outlines new thinking on the polluter pays principle and urban air pollution to Stephen Dineen. As the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) consults on a new funding system, James Curran believes that the time has come for a re-think on who pays. In its current consultation on streamlining 14 charging schemes into one, the agency proposes a shift away from the polluter pays principle to one in which the user pays. “At the very least it’s a concept worth thinking about,” he tells eolas. Under...[full story]
Environment: Ensuring safe sewage treatment systems
Monday, October 29th, 2012Septic tanks and other domestic waste water treatment systems will face inspection from mid-2013. eolas analyses the EPA’s plans. A national inspection plan was stipulated in the June 2012 Water Services (Amendment) Act. A public consultation which sought views on how the inspections should be carried out ended on 31 October. The water services legislation was implemented in response to a 2009 European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland was failing to comply with the EU Waste Framework Directive. Environment Minister Phil Hogan has said that the Act will help protect the environment,...[full story]
Environment: Laura Burke: The environment as our most valuable asset
Monday, October 29th, 2012The EPA’s Director-General, Laura Burke, talks to eolas about the state of Ireland’s environment and progress in meeting the challenges on water, waste and climate change. Laura Burke starts with the observation that “clear, accurate and timely information” is vital in underpinning policy and decision-making and highlights the EPA’s four-yearly ‘state of the environment’ report as essential in that regard. The 2008 report identified Ireland’s environment as an asset under threat. Four years on, the recession has offered a reprieve and has assisted us in meeting some of...[full story]
Environment: Climate change review: NESC interim report
Monday, October 29th, 2012Tackling climate change can become a national project with real economic benefits, analysis by the National Economic and Social Council suggests. eolas considers its proposals. Ireland’s 2020 targets on climate change provide an opportunity to build a “more unified government and societal project” and drive the transition to a low carbon economy, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) has stated in ‘Towards a New National Climate Policy’. The interim report, commissioned by Environment Minister Phil Hogan, was published in June and the final report is due to be submitted...[full story]
Environment: Hogan’s green goals
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011Environment Minister Phil Hogan spoke to Stephen Dineen after his speech at this year’s Environment Ireland conference. Better management of river basin districts and water provision are essential, according to Environment Minister Phil Hogan, who addressed the annual Environment Ireland conference. At the Croke Park event in September the Minister said the 2003 arrangements for managing river basin districts are not best suited to the second cycle of river basin planning. The Minister believes there are three basic problems regarding water management in Ireland. “First of all we’ve...[full story]
Environment: A new direction in water
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011Water reform will help Ireland meet its EU targets and address the dispersed nature of services, Ivan Grimes told delegates at the Environment Ireland conference. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Water services and water quality need a “joined up approach” because the Department of the Environment has traditionally viewed them as separate. It must be remembered that water service delivery is about regulating “the quantity of water taken from the environment and the quality of the water returned to the environment,” said Ivan Grimes, Principal Officer in water services policy. Addressing...[full story]
Environment: Water services investment: A&L Goodbody
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011Alison Fanagan, Head of Environmental & Planning and Noeleen McHenry, Solicitor, Environmental & Planning consider the legal implications of transferring services from councils to Irish water. Following the IMF-EU Programme and the Programme for Government 2011, the efficient, clean, and cost-effective delivery of water services is top of the agenda. Considerable investment is to be made over the next few years, to combat issues arising in water supply and treatment, such as leakages and poor water quality, and to facilitate the introduction of domestic water charges. Care will...[full story]
Environment: John McCarthy: European priorities
Wednesday, November 9th, 2011John McCarthy discusses the environmental issues likely to impact on Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2013 and other key environmental policy priorities with Owen McQuade. Compliance in transposing and implementing European environmental law has seen a step change over the past two years. The level of infringements gives a “barometer of performance in this area”, according to John McCarthy, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government’s Environment Division. In the two years to the end of 2011 the number of outstanding...[full story]
