issues agenda
Priorities for the Northern Ireland environment
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Permanent Secretary, Anthony Harbinson, discusses progress on the four key pillars of the Executive’s approach to improving the environment.
Speaking at the beginning of 2022, Harbinson, who is soon to be replaced as the Department’s Permanent Secretary by Katrina Godfrey, highlighted that existing challenges to Northern Ireland’s environment had been made even greater by the pandemic. Acknowledging a changed public attitude and growing emphasis on improving the environment, Harbinson says that now more than ever it is critical to hear the voices of young people as “the generation that will inherit the environment we choose to leave them”. Pointing to the dual climate and biodiversity crisis as a key priority of the Executive since the New Decade, New Approach agreement in 2020, 18
agenda issues
Harbinson says: “Our environment has never been higher on the political agenda.” As the Permanent Secretary explains, the Executive’s approach to improving the environment is built on four key pillars: •
green growth;
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an Executive Climate Change Bill;
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the Executive’s first Environment Strategy; and
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future agricultural policy.
On green growth, Harbinson outlines that a Green Growth Strategy is set to be published by the Department in 2022, following the consultation
DAERA Permanent Secretary Anthony Harbinson
