The Future

Living sustainably is all about looking into the future. The little things we do in our homes, our schools and our community probably won't have a major impact on our lives, but future generations will benefit from our efforts.

Preserving energy, water and biodiversity means that our children's children will be able to enjoy the same planet as we are. The most important thing to remember is that the future starts with YOU.

Resource use is at an unsustainable level in Ireland and in Europe. In the end, most of the products become waste, which then needs to be managed for recycling and disposal. This is an unsustainable trend and it is up to us to make changes in our lives to curb this link. We need to consume less through our lifestyle choices.

The future is local. Local ideas and local initiatives can all drive a sustainable existence for you, your family and your community.

Government Policy

In 2012 the National Climate Change Adaptation Framework was launched, providing a strategic policy focus to ensure adaptation measures are taken across different sectors and levels of government to reduce Ireland's vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change.

A number of national reports have recently been published that include a range of cross sectoral policies and actions to keep Ireland in line with the Paris Agreement targets. These reports include the National Mitigation Plan, published in 2017, which incorporates the Governments shared approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Most recently, the 2019 Climate Action Plan to Tackle Climate Breakdown was released which sets a course towards ambitious decarbonisation targets and outlines the scale of the challenge by addressing the current state of play in multiple sectors.

Further support is expected to come from the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2020 and Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030, whose purpose is to pursue the transition to a zero carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy by the year 2050.