Environment and Climate report eolas magazine March 2021

Building a better working world

Environment and climate report

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environment and climate report

Building a better working world

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE MINISTER EAMON RYAN TD:

Doubling the ambition After nine years, Minister Eamon Ryan TD is back in charge of the environment and climate portfolio and is determined to set Ireland on its course to a decarbonised future. Ciarán Galway sits down with the Minister to discuss ambition, a just transition and the draft Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill.

“Thrilled” and “glad” to be back in government, unsurprisingly Eamon Ryan regards the environment and climate portfolio as “the most fascinating and important brief” because it combines technology and innovation with new employment and economic opportunity, alongside

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environmental and social responsibility.

“My sense is ‘roll up the sleeves’; it’s a

With simultaneous responsibility for the

matter of delivery and working with

transport portfolio, the Minister stresses

officials to keep on track of what is

the synergy between the two

working and needs to be delivered,

departments, emphasising the

while bringing in new ambitions and

“progressive agenda” required to deliver

ideas. That’s what I’ve been at for the

“real change”.

last seven months,” he outlines.

Building a better working world are a dozen transformative initiatives that could be delivered between the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Department of Transport. “If you were to deliver any one of those projects in your lifetime, you would be very proud.

If you deliver all 12, then it would be of real significance,” Ryan suggests.

• implementation of the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy; • delivery of renewable electricity to achieve the target of 70 per cent renewables by 2030, including the delivery of 5GW of offshore wind by 2030; • expansion and incentivisation of microgeneration; • delivery of the National Home Retrofit Scheme; • completion of the Bord na Móna Bog Rehabilitation Scheme; • development of a national land use policy plan; • building of metropolitan railway systems for Limerick, Cork, Galway and Waterford; and • development of a more sustainable pattern of development.

Priorities

The Programme for Government committed to an ambitious target of an average 7 per cent annual reduction in overall greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 to 2030 (a 51 per cent reduction over the decade) and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. “That is beyond compare and that affects everything and involves everyone. The existing Climate Action Plan was well written on the back of a lot of good collaborative politics over the last three years, but we’re doubling the ambition,” Ryan states.

Indicating that the coalition Government is bringing a new sense of “ambition, scale, speed and urgency” to climate action, the Minister explains that there

According to Ryan, the environmental agenda “will only work when it delivers a better economy in the here and now”.

Therefore, the message that the Minister promotes is not solely focused on saving the planet. Instead, the message, he argues, must be brought home.

For him, this means emphasising greater energy efficiency in homes and less air pollution, safer active travel options, a transport system that facilitates a sense of community and the microgeneration of renewable power to the net benefit of household balance sheets. “[The environmental agenda] won’t work if it’s just a technological fix which maintains the current economic system whereby those who are doing very well do even better and those at the bottom don’t get a leg up. It has to be a better economy, a new economy in every way.

I know this seems kind of clichéd, but it

Drawing attention to analysis conducted by the ESRI that concluded that Budget 2021 was an “overall distributionally progressive budget”, Ryan asserts: “It’s also very green. We have never spent money like that before.”

Land use

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Policy priorities identified by the Minister include the:

is true: the Covid crisis is an opportunity to build back better. That building back better is green,” he contends.

Almost one-fifth of Ireland’s national land area is categorised as peatland, much of which has been drained over the previous seven decades. In its natural state, living peatland acts as a carbon sink. As such, draining peatlands releases carbon, largely as carbon dioxide.

“In large areas of bogland, the large cutaway bogs, it is a matter of rewetting and stopping the release of carbon and restoring biodiversity. There will be a lot of forestry and other sophisticated opportunities out of that. Planting reeds, using species, such as alder, to develop wood supplies that are in sync with the peatlands,” Ryan explains.

Meanwhile, in marginal uplands and other peatlands, Ryan outlines why seasonal livestock grazing should continue to support habitats which have thrived alongside human activity. “If you didn’t graze it, you would have natural restoration of birch and other trees which would drain the land and raise a lot of carbon. So, there will be some sheep and cattle on Irish hills which, through their grazing, act as climate champions. The beef from those cows can be marketed as really low carbon because of their role in storing carbon.”

Likewise, sustainable forestry in Ireland is a store for carbon dioxide and as such is component of climate change mitigation. Indeed, the national forest estate is a sink for over 312 million tonnes of carbon.

However, at 11 per cent, Ireland also has the lowest forest cover in Europe (though this has increased from between 1 and 2 per cent at the beginning of the 20th century). Existing government policy aims to increase national forest cover to 17 per cent by 2030.

“We need to change the entire forestry model,” Ryan concedes, adding: “We need to move towards continuous cover, close-to-nature forest

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Building a better working world management and forestry which is rich in biodiversity. That forestry will be much more employment rich; it’s much more sophisticated.

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“It’s not just monoculture, clearfell and replant. It’s longer-term, where you’re taking wood supply out on a continuous basis and opening areas within the forest to allow natural seeding to take place and allow the forest to grow.

Doing it that way has real benefits, including high-quality timber, really rich employment and a much more attractive environment; not the shadowing out and isolation of rural communities surrounded by monoculture, dense, dead and dark clear fell forests.”

If Ireland adopts this new model of forestry, Ryan suggests that, by the end of this century, “we should be aiming at 30 per cent of land in forestation”.

“Within that, is agroforestry where you’re including small pockets of forestry on farmers’ lands, to bring that diversity of income. That’s my vision of where we need to go,” he says.

Agriculture Cognisant of the fact that major environment and climate ambitions are fed by local projects and micro decisions, Ryan emphasises the need to be collaborative. “If we wave the finger at people and tell them that ‘you’re bad, you’re not doing it right and you’re the problem’ who is going to listen or want to be part of that? Ireland works well when all of us feel part of the vision. In the battle to stop climate change and

restore biodiversity, that is the right approach.

“The farmers on the frontline are as important as scientists in their labs.

They’re the key people who can see what is happening, can effect change and in doing so will have a future for their children and grandchildren on the same land.”

One major challenge facing Ireland’s climate ambitions is convincing 120,000 farmers on the profitability of using less fertilisers and more smart farming techniques to deliver high-quality, lowcarbon produce which is conducive to biodiversity and animal welfare.

“They have to have to have better income by doing that,” Ryan contends, adding: “Farming is not well paid at the moment. It is for a small number in the more intense dairying sector, but for the vast majority of farmers in the beef, sheep and other industries, such as horticulture and tillage, they’re not making much money. We have to make sure that they are paid for the environmental services that they are going to be critical to the delivery of.

That will benefit us all.”

In the Minister’s analysis, a more sustainable and less intensive system of farming requires two changes: the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and a change in the business model of large food companies, which are increasingly being held to new accounting standards.

“[The environmental agenda] won’t work if it’s just a technological fix which maintains the current economic system whereby those who are doing very well do even better and those at the bottom don’t get a leg up…”

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“What I am saying to those food companies is that they need to start working with and paying the farming community better for delivering the environmental services that allows them to say, in a transparent way, ‘our Scope 3 emissions are as good as you can get’.”

Just transition Reiterating his assertion that a just transition is a vital component of environment and climate policy, the Minister critiques the prevailing neoliberal economic system and market fundamentalism. “‘The market knows best’? There is no longer a consensus on that anywhere and correctly so. It’s not the way to go. Markets have to serve society, not us serve them,” he argues.

Just transition necessitates a series of economic and social interventions to pivot from carbon intensive activity to a low-carbon economy and mitigate the subsequent impact on employment, community, and services.

In November 2019, the then Environment Minister, Richard Bruton TD, appointed Kieran Mulvey as the first Just Transition Commissioner to engage with people in the Midlands as the first region in experiencing such a transition.

Building a better working world “With the closure of the peat plants and cessation of peat harvesting at Bord na Móna, the Midlands will be first community that’s going to require us to provide alternative investment and alternative employment. We have 63 projects which were approved for funding to help generate new enterprise through communities, businesses, and others.

• establish the 2050 emissions target in law; • introduce a system of five-year carbon budgets; • enhance the role of the Climate Change Advisory Council in proposing carbon budgets; • introduce annual revisions of the Climate Action Plan and prepare a National Long Term Climate Action Strategy every decade at a minimum; • require Local Authorities to prepare individual Climate Action Plans; and

of its impending enactment to TK Whitaker’s First Programme for Economic Expansion, Ryan reflects: “Whitaker’s plan worked because the policy measures needed to deliver it received 20 years of attention in the Public Service… The Climate Bill is a moment like that. This is what we need to do. This is the change of direction now.”

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“Similarly, we invested €130 million in the rewetting of 33,000 hectares of Midlands bogs to store carbon, restore biodiversity and create over 300 jobs using the exact same skills that we have previously used to extract the peat. It’s a really good example of how we can switch, and it won’t stop there,” Ryan insists.

Government’s Climate Action Bill is intended to:

While the Climate Bill will outline the direction of travel, the Environment Minister affirms that the substantive movement must be delivered by the political system, the Public Service and the Irish people. “In the Public Service and the political system, we have a particular honour because we are

“‘The market knows best’? There is no longer a consensus on that anywhere and correctly so. It’s not the way to go.

Markets have to serve society, not us serve them.”

All-island

• provide for an enhanced oversight role for the Oireachtas.

steering it. We have to make some of the choices.

The border remains a potential Achilles heel of Irish climate policy. Unilateral implementation of climate action initiatives in Ireland, north or south, has the potential of creating a backdoor by which initiatives such as a ban on smoky fuels or a ban on the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles could be circumvented.

However, the draft Bill received scathing criticism for its ambiguous language, an absence of clear accountability on targets and insufficient ambition. Asked if the Bill has been rushed, Ryan states: “We set ourselves a target of 100 days to get the Bill out. That was a political commitment that I wanted to meet.”

“To the Public Service, the first thing we need to say: ‘Don’t be afraid of failure.

Don’t be afraid of taking a risk and it going wrong.’ As long as it is with the imperative of transforming our economy in this way for the future. We should be able to afford learn-by-doing; praising and promoting those who are showing that sort of creative vision and initiative.”

The Minister indicates that such efforts should be coordinated on an all-island basis to ensure a consistency of standards. “One of the areas where I think there is consensus on the benefit of cooperation, north and south, is in energy, in environmental standards and in creating this platform where we can show ourselves to be a green island and get the benefits from that, collectively, north and south. In health, employment, and economic opportunities,” he maintains.

Draft Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill Published in October 2020, the Committee on Climate Action published a report on its pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Climate Action Bill in late December. When enacted, the

Indicating that he “wasn’t in any way precious” about the Bill, the Minister reiterates his belief in cross-party collaboration on climate policy.

“I think [the Climate Committee] did a very good job. Brian Leddin TD, the chair of the committee, did really well to get everyone together to issue their report. We’re working on that now and will come back to introduce a series of amendments – we won’t be accepting every amendment – but a good chunk of them we will. I think that will improve and strengthen the Bill,” he says.

Warning against being drawn into a politically divisive argument, Ryan insists: “We cannot afford to do that.

We cannot afford to wait; we need to be collaborative.”

For the Environment Minister, however, the focus of the Public Service is as important as the Bill itself. Having previously equated the potential impact

Ambition Reflecting on his ambitions for policy delivery in the lifetime of this government, the Environment Minister outlines several specific initiatives.

These include: the construction of Ireland’s first offshore wind turbines; hundreds of thousands of people choosing to commute to work and school “in a way that is safe, gives people great freedom and saves them money”; the delivering of BusConnects in Dublin as well as Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick; the deep retrofitting of 50,000 houses annually; a national land use plan; and a plastic bottle Deposit and Return Scheme.

“Those and more need to be delivered in the next four years,” Ryan concludes.

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Building a better working world

environment and climate report

What if we could engage everyone to increase climate action and sustain sustainability? emissions, etc. are a threat to human health. A potentially insatiable demand for EVs could place untold pressures on these countries and global supply chains, heralding abuses, scandals and ultimately, a failure to result in a more sustainable and environmentally robust world.

Even if we disregard the potential human consequences mentioned above, we should at least consider the resilience of a move to EVs, where the global supply chains would be exposed to policy or other changes within these countries. If cobalt and lithium mining were suddenly significantly curtailed, what would this mean for mass EV adoption?

Some might say we have climate action tunnel vision. Like a weary driver on a long dark road, drifting off at the wheel, we want to pull over, but we can’t. The road is all we can see, not the destination, writes Stephen Prendiville, Head of Sustainability, EY Ireland.

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Just like the weary driver, this way of moving forward cannot continue when it comes to sustainability and climate action. We need to pull over, get a good night’s sleep, and start afresh. But we can’t blindly rush to the destination, climate action cannot come at the expense of the sustainability of our global world.

One example I will use is that of the desire to electrify our transportation networks. Yes, electric vehicles are a part of the climate action answer. The 80

potential to replace all fossil fuel-based vehicles with electric, that can then be energised through renewables, is a very attractive proposition.

Yes, electric vehicles are a means of cleaning our transport emissions, but if we go with the notion that every vehicle currently on the road just gets replaced with an EV, then we have missed the point. EVs require metals and minerals to produce them (just like current cars), which can often be mined in countries where their environments, biodiversity,

Instead, a transition to EVs must be complemented by a policy of moving away from single vehicle ownership in favour of sharing models. Public transport needs to be enhanced and ultimately the attractiveness of driving ought to be reduced, either by active demand management means (such as charges for every vehicle kilometre travelled) or by passive demand management (having less space for cars to park, to move around and so on).

This will all align to our own national strategic outcomes set out in Project Ireland 2040, to have more compact growth and sustainability mobility, as well as transition to a low carbon economy.

I’m picking EVs purely as an example, but this thinking needs to happen across all the decisions we make, as people, as businesses and as a society. The point I’m making here is that there isn’t a quick-fix solution that will address all of our climate woes. To address climate change in isolation would be to misconstrue the very spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and risk wreaking havoc on parts of our society already in the throes of pain from the fall-out of a pandemic that continues to rumble on.

Building a better working world

This is why Government and business must work together. It won’t and can’t work if it’s just one side driving the agenda. It’s time for proactive collaboration and straight talk. If we work together to put structures in place that support negatively impacted people and create real incentives for citizens and organisations to change their behaviour, it is more than possible. A nuanced approach will be required to assist businesses to pivot and transform and to help people move into employment in different areas of the new carbon-neutral, productive economy.

So how do we change the drum beat for climate action. What can we do differently to sustain our sustainability journey?

When it comes to citizens, we need to tirelessly tackle two things: mindset and behaviour. We need to espouse a sense of curiosity and awareness across the entire sustainability spectrum. We also need to be imaginative and creative in our pursuit of meaningful and sustainable behavioural change.

But how do we change behaviour with the challenge of getting people more

“When it comes to citizens, we need to tirelessly tackle two things: mindset and behaviour. We need to espouse a sense of curiosity and awareness across the entire sustainability spectrum. We also need to be imaginative and creative in our pursuit of meaningful and sustainable behavioural change.” engaged? We need to be transparent and trustworthy and think differently.

Over the last number of years, social media and technology companies have created habits and trends that simply didn’t exist five years ago in many cases. What if we used a similar approach to climate action?

Could our inherently human quality for play be leveraged for the benefit of our climate goals? Duolingo is a great example, and perhaps one that provides a very stark contrast to old approaches versus new. Like many, I was taught Irish through the school system here. It didn’t stick. Duolingo on the other hand, through the integration of play and behavioural nudging, has made Irish the most learned language on their platform.

This is a climate emergency. The science is clear, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot be imaginative and apply ingenuity and positivity to addressing the very real challenges ahead.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for a war effort. Climate action is one, albeit major, battlefield.

Rather than wait for orders, we need to sound the march and in the absence of clear and unequivocal rules, rely on commanders’ intent to empower initiative, improvisation, and adaptation against the guidance of what a successful conclusion looks like.

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Inertia is the enemy of progress. The only way to counter inertia is to maintain momentum. This is true for EY as it is for any business or government. It is why we decided to push on from our carbon neutral commitments in 2020 and strive for carbon negative in 2021 and beyond. It is why we have pushed for net zero in 2025 rather than waiting for 2030 like so many others. Those that can should do more. We must create the momentum and the ripples that help others to rise to action also.

environment and climate report

The answer is not to just stop doing things. We must find means of lifting all people and changing their trajectories as we ourselves seek to become more sustainable. Closer to home, the discussion here about the future of the office or city centre, while it is bold and exciting for many in professional services, is unlikely to be of any comfort to those that made a living cleaning those offices, or those serving lunches or coffees to those central workers.

Firms driving towards their own carbon goals in the absence of a collective appreciation for other outcomes might exacerbate inequalities in our current system.

E: Stephen.Prendiville1@ie.ey.com W: www.ey.com/ie/carbonnegative

What if we could recast climate action not as the great burden of our generation but as the great opportunity, the global challenge, with rewards that recognise the absolute long-term value creation in the pursuit; how would we engage as people? Having relied on the stick for the last five years, maybe we need to bring back the carrot and start really pushing positivity in this challenge.

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Building a better working world

Climate Action Bill: Pre-legislative scrutiny Having completed its pre-legislative scrutiny (PLS) of the draft Climate Action Bill, the Oireachtas Climate Action Committee published its report of recommendations in December 2020. With the Bill set to be published imminently, Environment and Climate Minister Eamon Ryan TD has indicated that the Government will accept most of these amendments.

Pre-legislative scrutiny is the process undertaken prior to the formal drafting of a bill. It occurs when the general scheme of a bill is published by a minister and is then referred to the relevant Oireachtas committee. PLS was introduced into the legislative process in 2011 and confirmed by the 32nd Dáil in 2016.

In October 2020, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan TD submitted a draft of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020 to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action for the purpose of PLS. The draft Bill is intended to “strengthen the statutory framework for more effective governance of the State’s climate objectives” by updating the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 and establishing a national zero carbon target for 2050.

It will also supersede the National Mitigation Plan contained in the 2015 Act. Key elements of the draft Bill include: • a national climate 2050 objective;

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• annually updated climate action plans; • long-term strategies updated every decade; • five-year carbon budgets; • an enhanced role for and amended composition of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC); • augmented Oireachtas oversight of climate policy.

Concluding the pre-legislative scrutiny process, which included contributions from department officials and expert stakeholders at seven public sessions, followed by 13 additional committee meetings, the Climate Committee launched its report, Pre-Legislative Scrutiny on the draft of the Climate Action and Low-Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020, in December 2020.

Chair of the Climate Committee, Brian Leddin TD stated: “We were conscious of the wide-ranging impacts of climate policy and the urgency of the climate crisis, so the Committee confined itself to scrutiny of the proposed legislative provisions.

“Our objective in seeking inputs from experts was to focus on legislation and this report also maintains this legislative focus, keeping to current and potential textual provisions, rather than exploring climate policy more generally.”

Eight key themes emerged from the public hearings, across which the committee made over 70 recommendations.

1. Language used in the Bill: Committee members and witnesses criticised the “lack of clarity around definitions”, as well as the use of “vague or aspiration language” throughout the Bill. This, the committee warned, could “prove problematic in ensuring the legislation drives the changed required”. One example provided is the use of ‘pursue’ rather than ‘pursue and achieve’ carbon neutrality.

2. Role of the Climate Change Advisory Council: Members of the committee suggested that there be “stronger and more prescriptive provision for specific representation in the CCAC”, such as climate

Building a better working world

“The scale of the challenge is so great that it must be owned by all parties and none. The hallmark of this report is consensus and cooperation.”

Brian Leddin TD, Chair, Joint Committee on Climate Action

3. Target structure: Committee members asserted that overly large decarbonisation ranges could disincentivise ambition. Meanwhile, the draft Bill fails to reference Ireland’s obligations under international agreements, EU emissions targets or the Programme for Government’s average annual reduction target of 7 per cent until 2030. An additional potential flaw within the draft Bill is the omission of explicit requirements for climate action plans to meet carbon budgets. Likewise, the draft legislation omits specific interim targets.

4. Greenhouse gases including biogenic methane: Members highlighted the absence of specific provision for treating different greenhouse gases in distinct carbon budgets. There is also an uncertainty as to which greenhouse gases are to be included in carbon budgets.

5. Nature-based solutions and biodiversity: Committee members suggested that there should be “specific mention” of biodiversity in the Bill. The Committee also emphasised that the “rapidly changing environment” and that assumptions underpinning the draft Bill may require revision. Through the incorporation of research, performance measurement and monitoring, effectiveness could be reviewed in real time. The Committee also suggested that additional research be undertaken to determine how much how much carbon is stored in components of the natural landscape.

6. Carbon dioxide removal and negative emissions technologies: The Committee notes that while the draft Bill makes reference to technological innovation and the sequestration of carbon dioxide, it does not indicate the proportion of emissions to be compensated for by technological sequestration solutions. Furthermore, the Committee suggests that offshore mitigation is not clearly defined and it is unclear how the draft Bill approaches offsets or credits.

7. Just transition and climate justice: Committee members requested a submission from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Thinktank for Action on Social Change (TASC) to inform references to just transition within the legislation.

Members also suggested that more emphasis be given to public consultation in the draft Bill.

8. Accountability including for shortfalls: Members of the Committee highlighted the absence of specific consequences and a requirement for corrective measures if emission reduction targets are not met.

Outlining the collaborative approach adopted by the Climate Committee, Leddin explained: “This committee has undertaken and completed an extensive exercise in pre-legislative scrutiny. A range of expert witnesses appeared before us and others sent detailed written submissions… The scale of the challenge is so great that it must be owned by all parties and none. The hallmark of this report is consensus and cooperation.”

The core recommendations within the committee’s report are: • the Bill should establish clear legal obligations and ensure legal accountability; • the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act

2019 should be further explored;

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scientists, biodiversity experts, legal expertise and with due regard to age and gender balance. Former chair of the CCAC, John FitzGerald indicated that a better-resourced secretariat is required if the Climate Council is to deliver its proposed function relating to the carbon budget process.

• the Minister should either address in the Bill or revert to the committee with a plan to ban the importation of fracked gas and to ban LNG terminals in 2021; • the Bill must be accompanied by climate resilience measures; • while focused on mitigation, the Bill should empower the CCAC and oblige future governments to plan for adaptation; • implementation of the committee’s views on just transition, climate justice, biodiversity and naturebased solutions should be included in the climate planning and reporting mechanisms provided for in the Bill; and • the Bill should comply with the Aarhus Convention (UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters).

It is anticipated that many of the recommendations made by the committee will be accepted by government.

Speaking with eolas Magazine and commenting on the committee’s recommendations, Minister Ryan says: “I think [the Climate Committee] did a very good job. Brian Leddin, the chair of the committee, did really well to get everyone together to issue their report.

We’re working on that now and will come back to introduce a series of amendments. We won’t be accepting every amendment, but a good chunk of them we will. I think that will improve and strengthen the Bill.

“More than that and more importantly, it continues us on the path of political cooperation on climate. You turn this into a politically divisive fight and it undermines the effort. We cannot afford to do that. We cannot afford to wait; we need to be collaborative.”

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Public Private Puzzlement: expanding the definition of public authority under the AIE Regulations Austrian toll company was held to be a public authority. It argued that CRG was vested with special powers under the State Authorities (Public Private Partnerships Arrangements) Act 2002, the Roads Acts 1993 – 2016 and the M1 Bye-Laws, which allowed it to step into the shoes of a road undertaking by collecting tolls, recovering unpaid tolls and accessing vehicle licensing records.

CRG argued that, as a private PPP partner, its ability to perform these functions was on a contractual basis only, deriving from the PPP contract.

Jeanie Kelly

Laura Rafferty

Managing requests for access to environmental information has generally been the business of ‘traditional’ public authorities such as county councils or government departments. However, two recent decisions, one from the High Court and another from the Commissioner for Environmental Information, have signalled a broader interpretation of public authority, and challenged the notion that Access to Information on the Environment requests need not concern ‘private’ entities. Laura Rafferty and Jeanie Kelly of Arthur Cox consider the impact of these decisions.

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While the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 – 2018, defines the concept of a public authority, the legal interpretation of this definition is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Even a cursory review of the basis for appeals being made to the Commissioner reveals that the question of ‘who is a public authority’ is a key ground of appeal for parties requesting environmental information. While Irish law had generally tended to offer a relatively narrow interpretation of public authority, two recent decisions have

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demonstrated a willingness on the part of both the Commissioner and the High Court to broaden the definition of a public authority.

In September 2020, the Commissioner held that Celtic Roads Group (Dundalk) DAC1 (CRG), a private toll company responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Dundalk Western By-Pass under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Programme, was a public authority for the purposes of the AIE Regulations.

The requestor, Right to Know, relied on a decision of the CJEU2, where an

1. Case OCE-93421-T8F8W7 2. Case 157/02 Rieser Internationale Transporte GmbH and Autobahnen- und Schnellstraßen-Finanzierungs-AG 3. 2021 [IEHC] 46

The Commissioner agreed with Right to Know in finding that CRG was a public authority. The Commissioner held that, although the CRG was given the status of a road undertaking and toll company under contract, the 2002 Act provides the statutory basis for the transfer of State functions to a private entity by way of a PPP “arrangement”, and that these functions amounted to special powers meaning that CRG was considered to be a public authority.

While the Commissioner reached this decision by looking at the specific powers granted to CRG under the relevant legislation, it potentially paves the way for any private PPP partner to be considered a public authority depending on the extent of its special powers.

More recently, in January 2021, a decision of the High Court in Right to Know v. Commissioner for Environmental Information and Raheenleagh Power DAC3 held a wind farm operator to be a public authority for the purposes of the AIE Regulations.

Right to Know made a request for data relating to wind turbine noise measurements from a wind farm operator, Raheenleagh Power DAC. The wind farm operator was a joint venture company in which the ESB was a 50 per cent shareholder. The decision of the Commissioner to agree with the

operator that it was not a public authority was appealed to the High Court.

The decision of the High Court in Raheenleagh was arguably foreshadowed by a decision of the Information Commissioner in the United Kingdom in February 2020, where he found that EON UK Plc was a public authority for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). The Commissioner found that EON had been entrusted with public services as it held an electricity supply licence, an electricity generation licence, and a gas supply licence, and that these services were of particular importance to UK citizens and the UK economy and could therefore be considered services performed by EON in the public interest.

Furthermore, as the holder of an electricity generation licence, EON had certain powers under legislation which included the power to carry out street works, alteration works, felling of trees and the power to enter land. The Commissioner was therefore satisfied that EON was a public authority under the UK EIR.

“The implications of the Raheenleagh decision remain to be seen, but they may include private developers and operators who hold licences under the 1999 Act being subject to AIE requests at any and all phases of the lifecycle of a project, e.g., site selection; pre-application; EIAR and NIS preparation; during the planning process; post consent and pre-expiry of the judicial review challenge period; operational and repowering phases.” means that private special purpose vehicles or joint venture companies entered into between a public authority and private entity, or two public authorities, can be considered a public authority where they are found to be under the control of one of the public authorities. We are watching with interest where this line of argument will go in terms of widening the category of public authority.

communications, no matter how trivial, could one day be the subject of an AIE request!

While access to ‘environmental information’ can be refused on certain grounds, the public interest needs to be considered, in specific ways. Private entities who may now be subject to AIE must also consider the additional administrative burden of responding to requests completely, and within time, and bear in mind that all

Jeanie Kelly Associate, Environment and Planning Group T: +353 1 920 1376 E: jeanie.kelly@arthurcox.com

Laura Rafferty Senior Associate, Environment and Planning Group T: +353 1 920 1114 E: laura.rafferty@arthurcox.com

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The implications of the Raheenleagh decision remain to be seen, but they may include private developers and operators who hold licences under the 1999 Act being subject to AIE requests at any and all phases of the lifecycle of a project, e.g., site selection; preapplication; EIAR and NIS preparation; during the planning process; post consent and pre-expiry of the judicial review challenge period; operational and repowering phases. The decision also

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In overturning the Commissioner’s decision, the High Court noted that the wind farm operator had been granted a licence to generate electricity and an authorisation to construct the wind farm under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. The Court found that holders of authorisations and licences benefit from special public law rights and powers conferred by the 1999 Act beyond those which result from the normal rules applicable in relations between persons governed by private law. Such rights and powers enabled the wind farm operator to perform services of public interest relating to the environment, i.e., to supply electricity. On that basis, the High Court held that the wind farm operator was a public authority. The High Court also held that the wind farm operator was a public authority on the basis that it was under the control of the ESB, which itself is a public authority, and was providing public services in relation to the environment.

W: www.arthurcox.com

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Building a better working world

Waste reduction and the circular economy Philip Nugent, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, outlines the importance of waste reduction and the circular economy as Ireland and Europe seeks to transition away from traditional modes of production and consumption.

Nugent begins by contextualising the challenges facing Ireland and indeed Europe: “We know that we can’t sustain business as usual and that by 2050 we would need between two and three planets to meet the demands of such a scenario. We also know that patterns of production and consumption are a huge driver of climate change; half of total greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90 per cent of biodiversity loss stems from resource extraction and processing.

“We know that material consumption has trebled since 1970, from 26.7 billion tonnes to 92 billion tonnes in 2017. We also know that climate action efforts that only focus on the transition away from fossil fuels, supplemented by energy efficiency measures, will only address 55 per cent and that the remaining 45 per cent comes from

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making things. Making less ‘stuff’, if you like, or making stuff with fewer resources, is the essence of a circular economy, which has a key role to play in climate action.”

Of course, any consideration of climate action in an EU member state makes discussion of the EU’s Green Deal inescapable. Published in March 2020, but perhaps overshadowed by the outbreak of Covid-19, the Green Deal provides the blueprint by which the EU sees environmental action progressing in the next decades.

“This has multiple strands, and it reflects a number of things including the mobilisation of industry for a clean and circular economy,” Nugent says.

“In 2020, the [European] Commission started to progress under all these strands, including the presentation of a

2030 Climate Action Plan in September, the EU strategies for energy system integration and hydrogen in July, EU Biodiversity Strategy in May, the Farm to Fork strategy which also appeared in May, the European Industrial Strategy and the new EU Climate Pact and the Circular Economy Action Plan in March.”

The Circular Economy Action Plan sets out 35 new actions along the full lifecycle of products, as a way towards “fundamentally changing the way we consume and the way we produce”.

Objectives in the action plan include: making sustainable products that are designed to be reusable, durable and repairable the norm; empowering consumers and buyers; ensuring less waste; and making circularity work for people, regions and cities. The key value chains that the Commission has

Building a better working world identified are: electronics and ICT; batteries and vehicles; packaging and plastics; textiles; construction and buildings; and food water and nutrients.

“On the consumer side, the focus is on improving the knowledge base of consumers, making sure that they get trustworthy information when they buy products and making sure that producers have to substantiate any green claims that they make.

Governments tend to be amongst the

On the national stage, the Government published the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy in September 2020.

Although waste-focused, as the title suggests, the plan is seen as important step towards a fully realised circular economy. “It focuses on moving back along the product lifecycle, aiming to change the way things are produced and to make it easier for people to

and the transition towards it.”

Part of the Government’s ambition will be to move away from the traditional conception of waste policy, which is preoccupied with how it is processed, towards addressing the consumption and production patterns that occur before that.

In the immediate term, this means that there is now a dedicated team for driving the circular economy, through the new Circular Economy Division in the Department of the Environment, Climate Action and Communications.

The group is already developing a National Circular Economy Strategy and has also worked to deliver a number of sectoral circular economy roadmaps in the context of the phased reopening from the first wave of Covid-19, for

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“These are all high-value chains but of course they’re also high-impact in terms of environment of resource impact. The focus is on improved design, avoiding obsolescence, tackling single-use products, digitalisation, and encouraging new business models,” Nugent says.

of jobs and cleaner transportation networks, strengthen the Just Transition Fund to accelerate decarbonisation efforts and support new economic opportunities,” he says. “We can also see it very strongly in the draft legislation for the Recovery and Resilience Fund that will see about €750 billion in loans and grants to support recovery.”

“Governments tend to be amongst the biggest consumers in terms of buying power, accounting for over 14 per cent of GDP, so the proposal of mandatory green public procurement criteria has the potential to make a really big impact here.” biggest consumers in terms of buying power, accounting for over 14 per cent of GDP, so the proposal of mandatory green public procurement criteria has the potential to make a really big impact here. While the primary focus of the Action Plan is on changing the ways in which we produce and consume goods, preventing and minimising waste, the Action Plan also looks to ensure that whatever waste is created can be transformed into high-quality materials that can then have subsequent productive lives.”

The world into which the Circular Economy Action Plan was presented is gone; the pandemic having irrevocably changed the economic and social landscape through morbidity and job loss. Yet Nugent argues that the devastation seen across the world is not a reason to decelerate the move towards the circular economy, rather he argues that it should act as a catalyst.

“The Commission has been clear that the EU Green Deal is a key part of its recovery strategy, with a focus on how investment such as labour-intensive renewable energy and retrofitting programmes can support the creation

make the right choices,” Nugent says.

“While there are some actions that focus on how we manage the waste that we do produce, there’s a much greater focus on how we make greater use of extended producer responsibility, how we reduce and ultimately eliminate problematic single use items, how we keep materials in productive use for longer, how we cut food waste, how we can support greater segregation to ensure higher quality recycling, and how we can harness the reach and influence of all stakeholders, be they producers, retailers, NGOs, the waste industry. We must educate the people in business and help bring about positive change.

“Some of the measures we have set out include a consultation around introducing a deposit return scheme, an action plan on textiles, measures on construction and demolition waste, changes to recycling targets for waste collectors and about another 200 targets. The plan is not a circular economy strategy, but it has some important things to say about circularity in a broader context. Crucially, it explicitly commits Ireland to circularity

example in construction or hospitality, to “start to hardwire circularity into operations in a way that makes them more sustainable”.

Concluding, Nugent says: “In 2021, we will see the existing regional waste management plans being replaced by a single plan that will have greater emphasis on the circular economy agenda. The plan will contain specific targets for reuse, for repair and for consumption, giving practical effect to some of the specific actions we talk about in the action plan.

“We’re concentrating on the most potentially impactful producer-focused policy measures in the waste action plan as a priority so we can drive the greatest change as early as possible.

Things like eco-design, eco-modulation, extending producer responsibility including deposit return schemes, and how we can better effect change. The National Waste Prevention Programme, which has pioneered some excellent work in the circular economy field, has been reconfigured as Ireland’s circular economy programme with a revised mission.”

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Transport innovation for sustainable development: a gender perspective

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Rachel Cahill, Head of Executive Office and Sustainability Lead, Transport Infrastructure Ireland writes of how everyday stories inspire new thinking and how Transport Infrastructure Ireland gained a deeper understanding of the transport experience for women.

The climate crisis poses an urgent need for a fundamental reimagining of how we live and how we move.

struggle to meet national emissions targets, even with substantial progress in other sectors.

According to the International Transport Forum (ITF), “climate change cannot be stopped without decarbonising transport”. Achieving this is one of the most urgent and complicated challenges facing the global transport sector.

As the national body charged with delivering safe and efficient transport infrastructure and services, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) is stepping up and advancing its agenda on climate action and decarbonisation in line with the Government’s Climate Action Plan and the Programme for Government.

In contrast with other sectors of the economy, transport has yet to succeed in significantly reducing its carbon intensity. Without more effective and transformative measures to decarbonise transport, it appears that Ireland will 88

Key aspects include major new infrastructure and service delivery projects such as the new Luas system in Cork and MetroLink in Dublin (in

partnership with the National Transport Authority), in addition to demand management strategies to facilitate modal shift and a transition from private, low occupancy transport, such as cars, to public transport modes.

As 2021 begins, it is obvious that transport is being repositioned. Despite the recent arrival of viable vaccines against Covid-19, any ‘return to normal’ for the foreseeable future will involve more working from home, more time spent locally, less socialising outside the household and fewer long trips for work and leisure.

We must continue to deliver safe, efficient, and decarbonised mobility solutions to enable long-term well-being and prosperity. Never has there been such a need to rapidly address and promote sustainable and active modes of transport such as walking and cycling.

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So, how do we bridge the gap between high-level aspiration and bringing about real change? One area to focus on is gaining a deeper understanding of travel behaviour and the factors that contribute to people’s decisions around choosing their primary mode of transport.

Research from the ITF tells us that gender is one of the biggest determinants when it comes to travel behaviour and transport options. At a time when influencing the modal shift is of critical importance, understanding the role of gender in transport and the travel patterns and needs of 50 per cent of the population is an obvious starting point.

In this context, TII has taken up the challenge of studying and understanding women’s mobility in its new study Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes (July 2020). The research seeks to understand the realities for women in Ireland today: why they make the mobility choices they do, what are their daily challenges and aspirations.

Filling this gender data gap is the first step in balancing male bias in the design of future transport solutions.

Decarbonising transport should not be considered simply as a technical or an engineering challenge; it is also a social and cultural challenge.

Therefore, this is a huge opportunity for the Irish transport sector to come together and work collaboratively with our partners, stakeholders, and communities so that the findings from this report can influence modal shift and inform future policy and decision making,

The challenge Transport is often seen as genderneutral, providing benefit to all equally.

However, a growing body of international research highlights that this is not the case, including work carried out by the United Nations Commission (2014) on the Status of Women which found a male bias in the planning, provision, and design of transport systems.

Women and men can have different needs, constraints, and expectations for using transport. If women feel more empowered and find it safe to use sustainable transport modes such as walking, cycling, public transport and carpooling, there will be less dependence on cars, more public transport trips taken across the day and night, and enhanced quality of life for all.

At the same time, the planning and design of a safe, reliable, and equitable transport system will also encourage men to become less car dependant and give them more sustainable transport mode choices as part of their daily routine.

Travelling in a woman’s shoes TII’s study, which investigates the needs

and travel behaviours of women, is a first of its kind in Ireland, and we are delighted to be part of an essential step towards a deeper understanding of the transport experience for women.

Across the world, men and women have different travel needs for two main reasons.

First, mobility is heavily shaped by gender roles performed by women and men. Women still undertake a substantial portion of household and care-related activities daily which, when combined with work and education, make their travel patterns more complex. When you compare this with a commute to work in a business district, this mobility is often characterised by multi-purpose travel and ‘trip chaining’.

Second, women’s mobility is more likely impacted by unsafe experiences and concerns for personal safety. As a result, women are exposed to greater levels of ‘travel burden’ than men relating mostly to cost, stress, time poverty, lack of accessibility and, above all, safety.

There is growing international research demonstrating that this travel burden results in high car dependency and a cohort of women not leaving the house.

Travelling in a Woman’s Shoes analysed available data and studies from Ireland and relevant global literature. The primary research involved an ethnographic study where we conducted 21 two-hour in-home interviews with

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Nor should it be considered in isolation from the need to develop our economy and the transport industry in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Tackling climate change and decarbonising transport is part of a broader need to transform the transport sector to become a much more sustainable sector (which the World Bank defines as a safer, greener, accessible, and more efficient sector).

Yet experience shows that delivering this vision of a sustainable transport sector is challenging and not so easy to achieve.

making sustainable transport options feel safer, more attractive, and more accessible to everyone.

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women in Dublin and Cork and a statistically significant quantitative survey to validate our findings.

The study tells real-life stories that demonstrate the key characteristics of women’s mobility in Ireland. A research method which is not typically used in transport research, this ethnographic approach adds another dimension to existing transport research.

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The study shows us how issues of gender equality and social inclusion are well suited to the ethnographic method.

This allows us to shed light on the disparities and the realities that women face every day, introducing a diversity of perspectives and enriched data that applies a gender lens to travel behaviour.

Understanding gender issues in transport

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Research participants were selected to represent a diverse demographic and geographic background, including varied daily transportation usage and behaviours. As part of the fieldwork, we also accompanied women on aspects of their everyday journeys to observe how they interact with the existing transport infrastructure.

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Insights into the role of this ethnographic method in shaping future sustainable transport policy and planning are outlined below: • Ethnographic research produces evocative and nuanced insights into people’s lives and the role of mobility.

It leverages the power of a person’s own words to create a vivid impression of an issue or concern faced by a woman on her journey.

It is an essential vehicle for communicating complex problems and may be more effective in motivating the transport sector to engage in the subject than high-level statistical data.

• An ethnographic approach enables sensitive and complex human issues to be tabled and socialised in a government and business transport context. Through people candidly telling their stories, a broad range of social, infrastructure and technological issues are revealed without polemic. The integrated nature of mobility and socioeconomic issues is made clear.

• The study was able to capture feelings of fear, stress, and joy, which are significant motivators of transport

behaviour, but which are often left out of customer surveys.

• This method provides a window into what is happening beyond existing measures, key performance indicators and statistical data.

Decision-makers can observe the impact of transport and land use policies in real contexts.

• Photos taken from women’s journeys are an essential part of the storytelling process.

• Women’s rich and detailed anecdotes about their everyday mobility hold the clues to sustainable solutions.

Transport innovation – technological, engineering-based, and social – need to start from these stories.

This type of research is highly suited to understanding gender issues in transport. It can enable the transport sector to understand the complexity and significance of women’s mobility challenges and to innovate on an experiential level. It is an essential tool in designing effective, sustainable solutions.

The findings of this research study show us that understanding modal shift, decarbonisation and a smaller scale

post-pandemic travel landscape is about understanding everyday life.

It shows us that, when designing and integrating mobility solutions and land use policy, we need to consider that people are situated with families, gendered roles and work, fears, mental maps, joy, and risk appetites. Delivering sustainable mobility in the future is about unpacking these situations.

These generated rich and unexpected insights about the barriers, challenges and mental models driving mobility choice, specific to the Irish context. We used a robust, nationally representative survey of more than 1,000 respondents (male and female) to validate the hypotheses generated from the literature review and ethnographic research.

What we found What drives women to choose their primary transportation methods? We found that transport habits are socialised from an early age. For some, learning to drive and getting a car is a coming-ofage moment while for others, using public transport allows women to be independent from caregivers. Several women we spoke to talked about the freedom public transport gave them.

However, when life becomes more

Even for many women who use public transportation to commute, having a car remains a ‘necessity’ for chores and other spontaneous emergencies, given how unreliable public transportation can be.

When it comes to different mobility options, women consider the car to be the most pleasant and least stressful mode of transport, in comparison to the bus, for example. The car can also be associated with empowerment and joy.

However, over time, for many who drive every day, it can become stressful, tedious, like a burden chore - especially given traffic congestion and for women with young children who do not feel confident driving.

For women, the key issues with public transport include indirect routes and long wait times, lack of reliability, lack of support for care-giving needs and a lack of feeling safe.

Socio-economic and geographic factors also influence women’s mobility experience. Across regions, cities, and neighbourhoods, women have different relationships with mobility and public transportation.

not available; as such growing up, women do not have the opportunity to learn how to navigate a public transport system. They may experience different forms of freedom and independence but are less experienced with public transport, density, anti-social behaviour etc. – which can be challenging when moving to a city for school/jobs.

Overall, we found that Irish women’s mobility is hindered by existing household gender dynamics that place the burden on them.

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A better understanding of the everyday stories of women takes us beyond highlevel statements about inclusion by introducing voices that are often absent from formal consultation processes.

complex, women typically become more time poor, balancing job requirements and household tasks with the arrival of children. Public transport no longer becomes a viable option for complex trip-chaining and is not seen as being child friendly.

Women are also adversely impacted by being and feeling unsafe in public, particularly when walking and using public transport.

The real-life stories of women allowed us to explore additional central themes which influence mobility: that is, how family, safety, and diversity shape transport choices. The table below illustrates some of the policy opportunities in response to these themes.

Rachel Cahill Head of Executive Office and Sustainability Lead rachel.cahill@tii.ie

In many rural areas, public transport is

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The relationship between the environment and public health

wider health risks but also a broad focus to address the wider social determinants of health, such as the circumstances in which people are born, grow, work, live and age interact to create economic, social, cultural and physical environments that promotes healthy living.

“The goals themselves are to be addressed through a framework of actions organised under six themes.

Under theme one, governance and policy, it is envisaged that every government department and their partner organisations would work with the Department of Health to produce coordinated plans to embed the Healthy Ireland thinking across government.

“The intention behind theme three, empowering people and communities, is to build awareness of and action on the social determinants of health, which assists communities to organise and mobilise around the challenges that affect their wellbeing. This is very much captured by the determinants model within the framework.”

Greg Straton (left) with former Kazakh Head of Public Health Nadyrov Kamalzhan Talgatovich.

Greg Straton, the Assistant Principal Officer of Health and Wellbeing at the Department of Health, speaks to eolas about Healthy Ireland and the work being done to create a whole-of-government understanding of how public health and the environment intersect.

“Healthy Ireland is a whole-of-

Goals and themes

government initiative aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of everyone living in Ireland,” Straton explains, adding: “The genesis of the framework is from the World Health Organisation’s regional European office.

Health 2020 makes a clear connection between tackling the determinants of health and taking an all-of-government approach in the provision of the four goals of Healthy Ireland.

“The vision of Healthy Ireland is ensuring that everyone in Ireland can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential, that that wellbeing is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone’s responsibility across government.”

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The link between health and the environment informs Straton’s work. His responsibilities include striving for wellbeing to be valued and supported at every level through the four goals of Healthy Ireland, which are: increasing the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life; reducing health inequalities; protecting the public from threats to health and wellbeing; and creating an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland.

“Goal two of the framework acknowledges that health and wellbeing are not evenly distributed across Irish society,” he says. “This goal requires not only interventions to address the

Healthy Ireland Outcomes Framework The Healthy Ireland Outcomes Framework, published in 2018, is based on a conceptual model for health and wellbeing, which incorporates health status, health outcomes and the determinants of health and wellbeing across the life course.

This acknowledges the interconnection between what Healthy Ireland is trying to achieve in health and other policy areas such as education, transport, and social protection, where there are significant overlapping agendas.

The range of indicators selected to support measurement of these outcomes means that government can work together to create an overall picture of health and wellbeing in Ireland. The three indicators chosen for the 2018 framework were air quality, water quality and radon, chosen “for their measurability and usefulness in predicting health outcomes”.

“Further inclusion of this data set could include indices on housing quality, utilisation of public and active transport, biodiversity and even land mass covered with indigenous forests,” Straton says.

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“We are now progressing with plans to create a cross-sectoral governance group to oversee the framework’s ongoing development and use. This work will explore how best to use the Outcomes Framework to underpin health and wellbeing impact assessments, of relevant intersectoral policy areas and to support an evaluation and monitoring of impacts of government policies on the Healthy Ireland outcomes. These policy areas will be identified and selected with relevance to the Healthy Ireland agenda, targeting areas of policy with the greatest impact on quality of life.”

Healthy Ireland Fund Key to the Healthy Ireland approach has been the Healthy Ireland Fund, which stimulates and supports innovative, cross-sectoral, evidencebased projects, programmes and initiatives that drive the implementation of key national policies.

The Fund uses a non-competitive approach to funding that enables partnership. Working at a community level, the first round of the Fund reached almost one million citizens, developed healthy county plans in 22 counties involving 504 organisations and delivering 382 actions at local level across Ireland involving 2,456 organisations.

Significantly, the Fund has been structured to allow for local people to identify needs and co-produce responses. This has resulted in 100 per cent uptake of the Fund by all those who are eligible. Examples of the initiatives supported by the Fund include the Royal Institute of Architects Ireland’s Town and Village Toolkit with Galway County Council, the Transport and Mobility Forum in Cork and the Baggot Estate native Wildflower/Biodiversity Garden in Limerick.

“Stakeholder and citizens engagement is at the centre of effective implementation of Healthy Ireland. Relationships and partnerships have been identified, built and strengthened. Additionally, since 2018, the communications and citizen engagement campaign, with the objective of positioning Healthy Ireland as a trusted source of information has been underway.”

“Cross-government and cross-societal collaboration is, we believe, the key achievement of the Fund,” Straton says.

“The Fund pools the resources of other government departments. We have other departments putting money into the Fund, to implement multiple national policies at a local level in a coherent manner in a way that is citizen focused, locally relevant and tangible.

“The departments of Health, Education, Transport, Tourism and Sport, Children and Youth Affairs, and Rural and Community Development have contributed to its establishment and funding and continue to support its ongoing implementation.

“Stakeholder and citizens engagement is at the centre of effective implementation of Healthy Ireland.

Relationships and partnerships have been identified, built and strengthened.

Additionally, since 2018, the communications and citizen engagement campaign, with the objective of positioning Healthy Ireland as a trusted source of information has been underway.

“The Fund is distributed via local community development committees and children and young person’s services committees. Through these existing platforms, we believe that the engagement of citizens in local decision making can ensure that local organisations can work together.”

Another initiative the department has been involved in is the Warmth and Wellbeing Scheme, which is a deep

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“We’re currently looking at the Programme for Government commitment to develop a set of indicators to supplement economic measures of progress which take into account the wellbeing of the population.

I believe that the approach taken by the Treasury Department of New Zealand in developing their Living Standards Framework is really an exemplar in this area.

retrofit scheme pilot that Straton sees as an “excellent example of the collaborative approach at the national level”. It was a collaboration between four national organisations: the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, SEAI, the HSE and the Department of Health.

“This was very significant for us as we had a scheme being led by a different department where the main objective was to create a positive health outcome. From a Healthy Ireland point of view, this pilot exemplifies a crossgovernment approach to the provision of public services,” he adds.

Concluding, Straton looks to the future: “In the coming years we need to ensure that the sectors of society that control the most significant determinants of health and the environment realise that they play a huge role and take ownership of it. This will require those who work in the health system and environment to share ownership and expertise. Finally, we need to learn how to better utilise existing partnerships and platforms to drive change.

“The creation of a Healthy Ireland requires a culture change across Ireland to allow for the implementation across government and society. The Fund serves as a catalyst in the engagement with organisations and individuals across society with regard to health and wellbeing. This increased awareness is an important factor in the future prevention of chronic disease, which requires all sectors of society to play their part.”

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Progression for Fingal County Council in tackling climate change environment and climate report

Action Plan (CCAP) 2019-2024 was published in September 2019 after it was developed by staff across all departments, in collaboration with regional colleagues and elected representatives; and contains an ambitious list of actions which the Council will undertake over the five-year period.

Fingal County Council Parks staff receiving Green Flag award for Millennium Park.

It is now 15 months into the implementation of the Fingal County Council Climate Action Plan and in this time, as highlighted in the first annual progress report presented at the Council meeting in January 2021, Fingal County Council has achieved one of its four key targets.

It has improved the energy efficiency of the Council, developed an ISO 50001 compliant energy management system and has progressed on many of the actions set out in the plan.

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic was at the forefront of everyone’s mind in 2020, climate change is still one of

the most pressing issues facing local authorities in both the short and long term and Fingal County Council is still committed to tackling climate change and the impacts that will it have on the region.

The Climate Action, Biodiversity and Environment Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) played an important role in the creation of the CCAP. The current Mayor of Fingal, Cllr David Healy is chairperson of the committee and he outlined the role the SPC had, and still has, in overseeing the Plan.

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“The Climate Change Action Plan resulted from Fingal County Council signing up to the EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy Signing up to the Covenant means committing to developing a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan with the aims of cutting CO2 emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2030 and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change. The Strategic Policy Committee and the entire Council is fully committed to this goal.”

The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr David Healy demonstrating the new contactless bottle refill station installation.

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Fingal County Council’s Climate Change

David Storey, who was recently appointed as Director of the newly created Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel Department for Fingal County Council, spoke about the commitment that Fingal County Council has shown over the past year.

“The Progress Report demonstrates the commitment the Council has shown in the first year through the ongoing implementation of the Climate Change Action Plan, and of supporting plans.

Work will continue to complete all actions outlined in the plan while also allowing for further actions to be added.”

The CCAP outlined the four key targets to be achieved across its five-year timeline and contains 133 actions that are on-going or planned within the Council. They cover five key action areas – Energy and Buildings, Transport, Flood Resilience, NatureBased Solutions and Resource Management. These actions are broadranging, have a rolling duration, and are generally greater than one year in lifespan.

The four key targets that were identified for the plan were: •

33 per cent improvement in the Council’s energy efficiency by 2020;

•

40 per cent reduction in the Council’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030;

•

To make Fingal a climate resilient region; and

•

To actively engage and inform citizens on climate change.

The first Annual Progress report showed that in 2020 the implementation of the plan is well underway. One of the four

The Fingal Energy Management Team also developed an ISO 50001 certified energy management system, which enables improved oversight of energy accounts on a monthly basis.

Public lighting was identified by the Energy Management Team as the main user of energy by the Council with over 50 per cent of usage. Plans are in place to expedite the roll out of LED public lighting, which are 60-70 per cent more efficient than the old lights. The roll out is now 70 per cent complete and on track for completion by the end 2021.

The Mayor of Fingal, Cllr David Healy, believes Fingal County Council can be a leader in Fingal on climate action.

“The Council had already taken significant steps to improve energy efficiency before developing the plan with the support of Codema. The Action Plan is moving further, seeking to make the Council a leading organisation within the county for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the path to full decarbonisation and climate neutrality.”

“Through the development of the new Environment, Climate Action and Active Travel Department in Fingal we will be encouraging our residents to make sustainable choices in their day-to-day lives. The Council will continue to invest in infrastructure to support Active Travel and this will ensure active travel initiatives are streamlined with the resources to deliver,” says Storey.

Fingal County Council’s fleet of electric vehicles.

“The Action Plan is moving further, seeking to make the Council a leading organisation within the county for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the path to full decarbonisation and climate neutrality.” Cllr David Healy, Mayor of Fingal The transitioning of Fingal County Council’s vehicle fleet to an electric one is at 15 per cent with 34 fully electric road vehicles in operation and 15 more on order for early 2021. A Biodiversity Action Plan is being drafted which will deliver a climate change resilient ecological network throughout the county and climate and environmental awareness programmes are ongoing with both staff and public.

The continued implementation of the Action Plan, in collaboration with CARO, Codema and other stakeholders, supported by Government policy, will contribute to setting a pathway to ensure a climate resilient region in Fingal by 2030, and assist in laying the foundations for a carbon neutral society.

“The Climate Action SPC plan to continue, in cooperation with the Council, the Climate Action Regional Office and Codema, to work on the full range of actions in the plan,” says Cllr

David Healy. “The target of the Action Plan encompasses the overall emissions of the county over the next decade, so, in addition to pursuing the Council's own actions, we will consider what additional steps we need to take to encourage the other organisations, individuals and businesses in the county to join us in meeting this challenge.”

The Fingal Climate Change Action Plan

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The Climate Change Action Plan commits to delivering a Just Transition recognising that a significant level of change is required and that burdens borne must be fair across society. Fingal will work alongside agencies like Codema to support and encourage citizens, local businesses, public authorities and transport groups to work together towards the same goal of developing Fingal and Dublin as a sustainable, healthy, leading EU city by 2050.

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targets set, the improvement of energy efficiency of the Council of 33 per cent

by December 2020, was achieved a year ahead of schedule. The Energy Management Team’s Energy Review for 2019, in collaboration with Codema, Dublin’s Energy Agency, saw the Council’s energy efficiency improve by 34.5 per cent, effectively exceeding the 33 per cent target for 2020. This improvement amounts to an absolute saving of 12.4 GWh of primary energy or 4,578 tonnes of CO2.

and the First Annual Progress Report can be viewed at: https://www.fingal.ie/climate-changeaction-plan-2019-2024

Fingal County Council T: 01-8905000 W: www.fingal.ie Twitter: @fingalcoco

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Credit: Source IISD RS

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The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C Co-Chair of the IPCC working group III, Jim Skea, discusses the report on limiting global warming to 1.5oC and the pathways required.

The 2015 Paris Agreement invited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide a special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels and the related global greenhouse gas emissions pathways.

Skea suggests a simplification of the reports purpose to that of addressing two key questions: What were the impacts of global warming of 1.5oC? And what were the related greenhouse emission pathways?

The IPCC looked at how the level of global warming impacted and/or the risks associated with the reasons for concern and selected natural, managed and human systems.

Skea explains that the major finding was that a difference of 1.5oC to 2oC was significant. Highlighting an example, Skea points to that of tropical corals, where current levels of warming

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have already seen huge risks. “Even at 1.5oC we could lose most of these corals, but at 2oC they will be virtually all gone,” he states.

Another example is that of the arctic region: “If we were to warm by 1.5oC we would have an ice free arctic about once every century. If we warm by 2oC it will be once every decade. Areas of particular sensitivity in these scenarios are coastal flooding and low latitude fisheries but further knock-ons would occur in crop yields, for example.

Skea’s working group III paid particular attention to the emission pathways question and the transitions consistent with 1.5oC warming.

The IPCC does not have a research function and so its reports are based on existing research. Skea explains that within the existing research the IPCC found a range of scenarios that were consistent with global warming of

1.5oC, all of which fell within the trend line of global emissions of carbon dioxide shown in Figure 1.

Skea points to two strong messages coming from the research of: •

CO2 emissions need to fall by ~45 per cent by 2030 on the path to limiting global warming by 1.5oC; and

•

CO2 emissions need to fall to “net zero” by mid-century to limit global warming to 1.5oC

The IPCC report outlined that emissions from other climate forcers, outside of carbon dioxide, also need to fall, but not to zero.

“Emissions of non-CO2 forcers are also reduced or limited in pathways limiting global warming to 1.5oC with no or limited overshoot, but they do not reach zero globally,” says Skea, highlighting substantial fall in methane emissions and black carbon emissions, as well as

Building a better working world a lowering of nitrous oxide emissions, although not to the same extent.

Global total net CO2 emissions

The Co-Chair explains that a key point made by the IPCC within the report was that more than one way to limit global warming to 1.5oC. The report identified four illustrative pathways for carbon dioxide emissions, showing the kind of choices that might be faced if limiting warming to that level.

environment and climate report

Skea highlights an awareness from many countries that efforts to limit warming should happen in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.

Emphasising the absence of a quick fix, Skea points to the reports findings that limiting global warming to 1.5oC “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all systems”.

“There is almost nothing which can be left off the table if you want to limit global warming to 1.5oC. An incremental approach won’t do. It needs to be a big effort,” he says.

Unprecedented change, identified in the report include: •

a range of technologies and behavioural changes;

•

scale up in annual investment in low carbon energy and energy efficiency by factor of five by 2050;

•

renewables supply 70-85 per cent of electricity in 2050;

•

coal declines steeply, ~zero in electricity by 2050;

•

oil and especially gas persist longer – gas use rises by 2050 in some pathways;

•

deep emissions cuts in transport and buildings; and

•

changes in land use and urban planning.

Carbon dioxide removal Another important element identified in all pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C with limited or no overshoot is that they involve the re-use or removal of carbon dioxide (CDR) from the atmosphere. CDR can be used to compensate for residual emissions in difficult sectors such as aviation, heavy industry and freight transport, but also to achieve ‘net negative emissions’.

Source: IPCC Special report on global warming of 1.5oC

“There is almost nothing which can be left off the table if you want to limit global warming to 1.5oC. An incremental approach won’t do.

It needs to be a big effort.”

Skea explains that the report confirms the general understanding that the larger and longer the overshoot, the greater the reliance on CDR will be later in the century. He also highlights that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage feature in most scenarios and are only avoided in a few. This he explains would have implications for land, food and water security, ecoystems and biodiversity.

how the exercise of these options would impact on other sustainable development goals.

Sustainable development

“The clear message was that it was the energy demand measures which had the most positive outcome,” states Skea. “There are most synergies with the sustainable development goals. It is a bit more of a mixed picture on the land side but some of the biggest difficulties actually come on the energy supply side, with some of the technologies that would be exercised.

The IPCC took a number of mitigation options, alongside 17 sustainable development goals and look at measures that applied to either energy supply, energy demand or land use and

“There is a clear message that the demand side really matters if we’re going to reconcile climate mitigation with sustainable development more broadly.”

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Building a better working world

EU Biodiversity Strategy environment and climate report

peatlands, seabed protections and public lands where re-wilding is possible.

Micheal O'Briain, Deputy Head of the Nature Unit of DG Environment in the European Commission, discusses a new pathway for biodiversity in Europe and the importance of a global context.

Highlighting that the publication of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sits within a broader set of actions contained within the EU’s new Green Deal, O’Briain points to a much greater recognition of the seriousness of the biodiversity crisis that is being faced globally.

The European Commission representative highlights the role of nature in underpinning economies and societies and flags the World Economic Forum’s identification of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems as “one of the greatest risks facing humanity and businesses”.

The Strategy emerged in May 2020, in parallel with the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, highlighting the importance of the interconnectedness between biodiversity and the food sustainability system.

On why the strategy is of critical importance now, O’Briain says that alongside a recognition that the decline of species and habitats are happening at an unprecedented rate, the pandemic has installed the need for a green recovery.

O’Briain outlines that the conclusion of the current strategy to 2020 will confirm that Europe has not halted biodiversity loss. However, he points to a much better understanding of the drivers of biodiversity loss. In Europe, the most significant of these relate to land use, particularly linked to agriculture and there is a recognition that these are being driven by the indirect drivers such as how we live, consume, and produce.

“We can see the consequences in relation to the great thinning of nature that has happened over the last four decades with an increasing rate of extinction of species,” states O’Briain, emphasising the human-induced nature of this phase of extinction.

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The strategy consists of four key elements in the form of: protect nature; restore nature; enable transformative change; and have an EU for an ambitious global agenda.

Central to the protect nature element is the insurance of sufficient space for nature. The EU’s Natura 2000 programme is a solid base on which to build but is not sufficient. In response, the EU have outlined an ambition to expand its protection network to 30 per cent of EU land and sea, embracing Natura 2000 and nationally designated areas. A third of these areas are set to be recognised as ‘strictly protected’, with particular relevance to Ireland’s

In terms of restoring nature, O’Briain points out that the Commission has committed to bringing forward legally binding targets in 2021, complimenting and reinforcing existing legislation.

Amidst these targets will be a move to not only halt biodiversity decline but to create measurable improvements, while also increasing organic farming by at least 25 per cent. The EU are aiming for a 50 per cent reduction in the use and risk of pesticides, the planting of an additional three billion trees and the restoration of free-flowing rivers and a reduction of damage to the seabed.

On enabling transformative change, O’Briain points out that little change will occur without an enabling governance framework and sets out that enforcement will be central to this.

Better implementation of existing of frameworks must also be enhanced by access to finance, better business engagement, stronger education, and the promotion of nature-based solutions.

On an EU for an ambitious global agenda, O’Briain highlights the need for an EU strategy that shows a commitment which starts at home. The post-2020 framework aligns with the UN’s ‘living in harmony with nature vision’ and in doing so will have to give greater recognition to ensuring a fair and equitable share of the benefits from the use of genetic resources linked to biodiversity. To this end, the EU is aiming for a successful outcome from the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, being held in Kunming, China in 2021.

Turning to the next steps for the Strategy, O’Briain says that the actions contained in the Strategy’s annex are being discussed with member states and stakeholder communities, who will be responsible for delivery. Translating the words of Europe’s leaders at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity into actions will be the challenge at home, while globally, the conference in China will deliver a more global agenda.

environment and climate report

Building a better working world

Meeting Ireland’s climate change challenge John FitzGerald, former Chair and current member of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC), contextualises the climate change challenge facing the island of Ireland.

Setting the scene, FitzGerald highlights that since around 2000, there has been a disconnect between emissions and national income. That is to say that economic growth has occurred without necessarily increasing emissions. “The real problem is that there has only been a slight fall in emissions over the last decade. Our objective is to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 and get to net zero by 2050. There is a massive challenge there,” the former CCAC Chair asserts.

“The target is framed in terms of the cumulative total between 2013 and 2020 and even with Covid, we were not going to meet that target of a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. We set ourselves a target for 2020 and we did not meet it.

We are not on the right path.”

The challenge In 2019, the Irish Government published its Climate Action Plan. Now, the triparty coalition government has increased the ambition for 2030 and set a net zero target for 2050, consistent with EU obligations. As such, the Climate Action Plan, which designed to

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meet the original targets is no longer sufficient.

Meanwhile, the EU 2030 Climate Target Plan has yet to be legislated for. “It could shake up the 2030 targets. It represents a major change in policy measures which, if accepted, could alter the policy environment in the Republic and actually make meeting targets slightly easier,” FitzGerald remarks.

To hit the 2030 target, each policy contained within the Climate Action Plan will need to be implemented, while taking into account the “very important role of land use change, sucking carbon out of the atmosphere”.

More will be required, FitzGerald contends, to meet the current 2050 goal of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions. “The Climate Action Plan would get us to the existing 2030 target but then the effectiveness would peter out. There is a lot to do if we are to meet our goals and our obligations in terms of climate change,” he adds.

The policies While acknowledging that the 2019

Climate Action Plan represented a “major leap forward”, FitzGerald advises that the CCAC is “already cautioning that some of the measures may not be sufficient to do achieve the targets”. The first task is to implement the measures in the plan.

The first priority of the CCAC is to provide independent advice to government. As such, one of its initial suggestions was to raise the Carbon Tax. As per Budget 2021, the Carbon Tax is now set at €33.50 per tonne of carbon, rising by between €6 and €7 per annum until 2030, when it will reach €100 per tonne.

“The reason why this is important is because when you tell people to cut their emissions, you won’t get much action; it needs to be profitable. Now, that’s not sufficient to bring about change. But if they’re not going to save money, it’s not going to happen,” FitzGerald observes.

As fuel prices rise, a minimum of onethird of the additional revenue will be required to offset the potentially regressive impact on low-income households. The CCAC member maintains that a combination of welfare

Building a better working world changes and the retrofitting of social housing will offset any negative impact.

“The ESRI’s analysis shows that, actually, the combination is broadly progressive rather than regressive,” he emphasises.

Electricity

“Infrastructure needs to be put in place to allow renewables to work. When I sat on the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation, we negotiated the all-Ireland electricity market expecting that the Republic would deliver on the necessary electricity interconnector between Northern Ireland and the Republic. I feel kind of betrayed by the Republic in its failure, so far, to implement that. Now, I think that Northern Ireland provided some obstacles there. We need other changes too, including increased interconnection to France,” FitzGerald comments.

Transport In order to meet its demanding target for electric vehicles, the CCAC member contends that it must utilise tax revenue alongside subsidies. The total cost to reach this target, as estimated by the Department of Finance, is around €10 billion. “The State could not support that. So, the tax system needs to change to provide much more encouragement for people to buy electric vehicles,” he says.

The CCAC has also recommended that those who live in rural areas and commute greater distances should be prioritised because “there will be a bigger saving and therefore a bigger return in terms of reduced emissions”.

FitzGerald also emphasises the role of public transport. “A key component of the changes for 2050 is the National Planning Framework. Housing

“As a priority, the Government is going to rejig the bus system through the BusConnects programme, alongside Metro Dublin. The problem is, however, many of these investments won’t reduce emissions by 2030 but if we don’t undertake them now, they won’t reduce emissions by 2050 either,” he insists.

Agriculture Within agriculture, FitzGerald maintains that there is an opportunity whereby emissions can be reduced while simultaneously enhancing farm income security. “There’s a potential win-win here. On average, farmers in the Republic make nothing out of raising cattle. If they used some of their land to plant trees, to move into forestry biomass, they could make more money and have a more secure stream of income. At the same time, the emissions from methane and nitrates from fertilisers would be reduced,” he argues.

Incentives for such a transition could be delivered in the Republic through the reassessment of Common Agricultural Policy.

Furthermore, the CCAC recommends that the role of farmers in managing carbon stocks be acknowledged.

“Farmers need to be rewarded for sucking carbon out of the atmosphere as an important component of offsetting the damaging emissions from methane from cattle.

“The Government should also introduce measures to significantly reduce nitrogen use by 2030 because nitrogen oxide gases are a significant component of Ireland’s emissions. In fact, over one-third of Ireland’s emissions as recorded for EU purposes originate through agriculture.”

Built environment The Irish Government plans to undertake a major retrofitting project, comprising 500,000 homes, by 2030.

However, FitzGerald notes that unless the Carbon Tax rises, it will not be

profitable to do so. “As resources are limited, the Government needs to target buildings which will most benefit from emissions reductions. These tend to be vulnerable households, including those in social housing. The State is the largest landlord and so it has a duty to make those changes, which is going to be very expensive,” he says, adding: “Homes currently heated by coal, oil or peat, which tend to be in rural areas should also be targeted first because gas fired central heating is less damaging in urban areas.”

environment and climate report

Significant progress has been made on the decarbonisation of electricity across the island with the accelerated closure of coal- and peat-fired electricity generation plants. Now, there are new opportunities to produce electricity from renewable energy sources, particularly in the offshore wind sector. To successfully exploit these opportunities, investment in the necessary infrastructure is essential.

development must be controlled so that it takes place in major urban areas with public and active transport connectivity.

The future lies in public transport rather than people driving to work.

Overall, high rates of retrofit will not be achieved unless there is low-cost finance for households. That is a major obstacle. “You’re talking about households having to spend maybe €50 billion over the next 30 years to retrofit their houses, if we are to get to net zero. That is a massive investment by households. Making this happen efficiently and helping households to do it; the State cannot finance it. The State will have to finance the houses that it does own in terms of social housing.”

Conclusion In his concluding remarks, FitzGerald asserts that the increased ambition to tackle climate change in the Republic must be matched by the implementation of new measures to drive decarbonisation.

“Even the Climate Action Plan of 2019 isn’t enough. We need to do more in agriculture in terms of reducing the national cattle herd, which wasn’t part of the plan. We need to do more in terms of heating, retrofitting and finding alternative ways to reduce emissions.

We need to more, not just on electric cars, but in other areas of public transport if we are to meet our 2030 target.

“Finally, policy is going to fail unless it is seen to be fair. The just transition is really important and that’s why, in terms of the revenue from the Carbon Tax, when the Minister sets out in his budget what is going to happen, there needs to be transparency. If people feel that it is unfair and that the burden is falling on people who cannot afford to pay, then there will be major resistance,” he remarks.

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Building a better working world

Developing a circular economy environment and climate report

Gulland stresses that the reduction of waste is not only key to ending the emissions behind the climate crisis but is also an opportunity to create sustainable jobs and businesses.

This understanding was key to Scotland’s launch of its circular economy, which began in 2014 with macro-economic research on the opportunities of a circular economy for Scotland and culminated in the Government’s Making Things Last strategy in 2016, one of the first circular economy strategies across the globe.

Gulland explains that the strategy laid the groundwork for a comprehensive programme of supports and influences across key sectors, individual businesses, communities, and public sector partners to embed circular economy thinking and enable innovations.

Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland, Iain Gulland discusses the challenges and opportunities of the pandemic on Scotland’s progress towards becoming a circular economy.

Gulland belives that the pandemic has highlighted that in the face of a global crisis, business can be done differently, and this is worth noting when thinking about tackling the climate emergency.

The Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland, set up to lead Scotland to use products and resources responsibly and focusing on where we can have the greatest impact on climate change, says that while the Covid pandemic demands urgency in the short term, the climate emergency and the associated biodiversity emergency remain the greatest challenges of our lifetime.

Gulland identifies overconsumption of the earth’s natural resources as the 102

cause of these challenges, highlighting that 80 per cent of Scotland’s carbon footprint is caused by the vast amount of goods, materials, and services the country produces, consumes and then throws away.

However, he also highlights that over half of these items that become waste are imported from overseas, meaning that the impact of waste on Scotland’s biodiversity, habitat and water security is not solely to do with behaviour at home.

“Quite often we only talk about dealing with our territorial emissions but clearly we really need to address what’s happening overseas as well,” he states.

Outlining some key initiatives on this front, Gulland highlights that Zero Waste Scotland has established a growing prevelance of circular economy cities and regions across Scotland and explains that many of these are done in partnership with chambers of commerce, creating both an interface with local businesses and providing a platform to facilitate strategic opportunities.

Additionally, the publicly funded company has developed Revolve, Scotland’s re-use quality standard with around 150 individual outlets now certified.

“It’s an attractive badge to hold, and this is now being rolled out across a wider range of businesses than the notfor-profit third sector where the Revolve standard began, with major charity retailers and now private sector businesses successfully achieving certification,” says Gulland.

“The logo assures customers that they are buying from a great re-use retailer committed to providing only the highest quality second-hand products and excellent customer service.”

Building a better working world Zero Waste Scotland has invested almost £9 million in around 30 individual businesses to develop new circular economy opportunities and provided business support to over 200 individual companies in assessing new business models.

“Clearly there is an opportunity to tackle common problems but more importantly to identify common opportunities.”

Highlighting some examples of early successes, Gulland points to Renewable Parts, a company that refurbishes wind turbine parts, and which alongside a growing wind industry, has seized an opportunity to re-manufacture and repurpose parts which would usually be retained until end of life and then disposed of.

some of the gaps.”

fragility is greatest and build

Reducing waste is just one of the opportunities identified by Gulland, with another being jobs. As unemployment rises as a result of the pandemic, hitting young people hardest, Gulland sees an opportunity to develop skills and to connect young people eager to learn with businesses looking to recover, around the circular economy.

opportunities going forward.”

Scotland has set an ambitious target of a 75 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and Gulland believes that knowledge and skills development around the circular economy now will be crucial to future success.

fragilities in the circular economy supply

“Clearly there is an opportunity to tackle common problems but more importantly to identify common opportunities,” he says.

Covid-19 Gulland admits that Covid-19 has been disruptive to the circular economy journey and to the businesses involved but stresses that it has also helped to unearth some opportunities. Emphasising that the pandemic has helped identify supply chain resilience and weaknesses in relation to re-usable or re-purposed materials. Highlighting the example whereby many breweries in Scotland switched production to hand sanitiser earlier in 2020, Gulland states that it soon became clear that it was in fact bottles that became the critical material in the supply chain, and this brought about interest in re-usable and re-fillable opportunities.

Explaining that Zero Waste Scotland have worked with companies to develop a pilot around refillable systems within hospitals over the winter, he adds: “These are the types of examples where people are beginning to think differently about single use and thinking more about how re-fill, re-use and how the circular economy could help plug

environment and climate report

Another example is a facilitated collaboration between a local brewery and bakery, whereby the bakery is making biscuits from the brewery’s spent grain. Gulland sets out that this partnership is not simply the identification of one common opportunity but rather an example of how bringing businesses together collaboratively in cities and regions can create a different dynamic to partnerships.

Gulland explains that resources have been made available to a number of companies in recent months in this regard to facilitate the building of capacity but also to diversify into new markets and materials.

A further major step for addressing chains is the recent Scottish Government announcement that £70 million is to be made available to local authorities in 2021 to not only reestablish recycling services but to go

Waste management

further and “ensure that we are

Discussing the opportunities in waste management, Gulland believes that the Government’s strategy has helped bind two spheres of the circular economy.

The first being businesses and entrepreneurs excited about new circular economy opportunities and the second being waste management, which he says now have a common cause under the strategy.

make the most of in Scotland”.

collecting the materials that we can

Key to this will be the establishment of a consistent national household recycling service, which Gulland explains is something that has been in development for some time, recognising that 32 local authorities operating individual systems has not been optimal for circular economy development. Zero

Outlining that refuse collectors are now more accurately recognised as skilled resource managers, harvesting the valuable materials for a growing circular economy which feeds in to the national and global economy, Gulland says that the pandemic has highlighted the importance of waste material management.

Waste Scotland have been working on a national recycling charter, which the Chief Executive believes will provide a roadmap to collection consistency.

Concluding, Gulland looks to the future and outlines the ambition to establish more re-processing infrastructure in Scotland. Pointing to an understanding

“The challenges over the past months of maintaining our frontline services helped to provide a focus that it wasn’t just health issues that needed to be dealt with but that we had to continue provide the materials into the economy and to ensure that we didn’t lose ground on the circular economy progress we’ve made in terms of material stewardship,” says Gulland.

“It has brought to the fore the existing supply chains and the fragility of some of those supply chains and possibly exposed a lack of resilience in some areas. However, it has allowed us and government to target those areas where

that for every one job in collection in Scotland, there is potentially a further eight jobs in re-processing, repurposing or re-manufacturing materials back into the economy, he describes this as “a prize that we would very much like to secure”.

“Covid has shown us that we can all do things differently which is exactly what is needed, not just to embed the circular economy but to move on our own ambitions around the climate change and biodiversity emergency,” he concludes.

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