Nature and Biodiversity

Prof. John Sweeney reports on the UNFCCC COP-25 Meeting in Madrid, December 2019.

The current model of agriculture in Ireland is broken. Anything other than a radical shift in focus in the next agri-food strategy to domestic food security within a system of enforced limits on absolute annual and cumulative pollution will be environmentally unjustifiable.

In a submission to the newly formed Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) on its Draft Strategic Plan 2019-2024, An Taisce called for the organisation to set strong planning targets if Ireland is to achieve the objectives laid out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

An Taisce is seeking a response from Minister Madigan on this exposure of systemic policy failure in the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht in relation to climate action and peatland protection, in light of the climate and biodiversity loss emergencies.

An Taisce has formally written to Minister Josepha Madigan, TD, Minister for Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht, in relation to the decision of 4th September 2019 by An Bord Pleanála relating to turf cutting and peat extraction at Coolree and Blackwood Bog, Robertstown, Co Kildare. An Taisce calls for a fundamental review of the Department's Peatlands Strategy in order to properly prioritise and integrate climate action with peatland protection and reversal of biodiversity loss on a national basis.

An Taisce response to the new report produced by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) which confirms that Ireland’s agricultural model of over-dependence on animal agriculture, particularly beef and dairy, comes at a devastatingly high ecological cost.