Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ireland and sustainability - Agenda 21

In 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit (also know as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992), world leaders agreed on an action plan for the 21st Century, called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 works at Government and local levels in each nation. It aims to increase local action on initiatives such as recycling, reducing energy use and sustainable travel.

According to Peter Doran, a member of Northern Ireland's Local Agenda 21 Advisory Group:
Local Agenda 21 is about bringing the United Nations 'Earth Summits' (Rio in 1992 and New York in 1997) home to our communities.
He has written an article entitled What is Local Agenda 21? which includes a list of 14 target achievements of the initiative. Closest to Only One Ireland's heart is that:
The diversity of nature is valued and protected.

Find out more about Ireland's progress on Agenda 21.


How is Ireland progressed Agenda 21 since 1992?
Read a Short Analysis of the State of Ireland in terms of Agenda 21, or an extended summary by the Environmental Protection Agency or the UN's review of Ireland's progress on Agenda 21. Read about The Irish Response to Agenda 21 and all-Ireland cross border Agenda 21 reviews and initiatives (PDF) .

Information on Agenda 21 is also provided by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Who runs it?
In Ireland, Agenda 21 officers are engaged to coordinates work on the plan for each local authority for instance read about Meath's Local Agenda 21 and Dublin City's Local Agenda 21.

Dublin City also has an Environmental Partnership Fund

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The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.