The leading voices on transport descend on Croke Park later this month for The National Smart Transport Summit. Among the impressive line up of expert speakers at the event are Tony Matthews of Transport forLondon, Bus Eireann Chief Executive Martin Nolan, Rory O’Connor of the Railway Procurement Agency, Declan Kearney of Aer Lingus and the … Read more
Of 42 towns and cities monitored across Ireland for cleanliness levels over the course of 2012, Kilkenny was the cleanest. The city pipped Cavan and Killarney in the annual survey by Irish Business Against Litter, which showed 80% of towns and cities in the country to be as clean or cleaner than their European counterparts. … Read more
Europe needs to work harder to protect its water resources from increasing pressures. This was one of the messages that emerged during 2012, ‘European Year of Water’. The European Environment Agency (EEA) has also presented important findings in many other areas, including air, climate, biodiversity and chemicals. Europe needs to redouble efforts to keep sufficient quantity … Read more
Provisional statistics from the Met Office show 2012 was the second wettest year in the UK national record dating back to 1910, and just a few millimetres short of the record set in 2000. The exceptionally wet year was characterised by a dry start which quickly gave way to very wet weather, with April and … Read more
Limiting climate change to target levels will become much more difficult to achieve, and more expensive, if action is not taken soon, according to a new analysis from IIASA, ETH Zurich, and NCAR. The new study, published in the journal Nature, examined the probability of keeping average global temperatures from rising more than 2 C … Read more
In 2012, 32,000 users engaged with FreeTrade Ireland to reuse 16,000 items like toys, furniture, electronic goods and garden equipment. FreeTrade Ireland is a free, public online service that helps people to reuse unwanted items. FreeTrade Ireland users are saved the hassle of trekking down to local recycling centres or the cost of hiring a … Read more
The European Commission is holding a public consultation on the future development of unconventional fossil fuels such as shale gas in Europe – often referred to as fracking. All interested individuals, organisations and public authorities are welcome to share their views on the development of such projects and on the best ways to address the … Read more
Ireland is the first Presidency awarded sustainable and environmental certifications that were also awarded to the London Olympic Games venues Dublin, 22 December 2012 – Certification Europe has awarded double certification for Event Sustainability (ISO 20121) and Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001) standards to the Dublin Castle, the headquarters for the seventh Irish Presidency of … Read more
The Government has announced details of the designation of the North Lotts and Grand Canal Dock areas of the Dublin Docklands as a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ). This will provide for continued fast-track planning in designated areas on the wind up of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) next year. The SDZ designation, proposed by … Read more
In two judgements the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Ireland has to pay financial penalties for failure to comply with earlier Court judgments that established a breach of EU environmental law. The first ruling relates to Ireland’s failure to properly regulate the installation and use of septic tanks (individual waste … Read more