Ireland set to miss environmental targets says EPA

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The Irish Times

Ireland is set to miss key targets in tackling waste, carbon dioxide emissions and water quality, the country's environmental watchdog warned today.

Announcing its state of the environment report, Ireland's Environment 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned that greenhouse gas emissions will exceed the proposed 2020 target by seven million tonnes.

As the influential body issued its fourth state of the environment report, director general Mary Kelly said progress had been too slow to date.

"We are not making headway and we are not progressing at the rate we need to," she said. "We have challenges on climate change, we have challenges on water quality and we have challenges on waste."

"Climate change has been identified as the greatest challenge facing this generation and the EPA projections underline the difficulty in addressing this issue," she said, urging Ireland to "rapidly" develop a greener economy.

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