Ireland had the second highest greenhouse gas emissions per person in the European Union, latest comparisons show.
Emissions of carbon dioxide from oil, gas and coal, together with emissions of methane from agriculture, came to 10.4 tonnes per head of population in 2023.
That was well above the EU average of 6.9 tonnes. Only Luxembourg had higher at 11.8 tonnes per person. Malta had the lowest at 4.1 tonnes.
Ireland was also far removed from the EU average for forestry cover, with just 11.6 per cent of the total land in forest.
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That was the third lowest, well below the EU average of 38.8 per cent and far less than the most-forested country, Finland, which is 66.2 per cent covered in trees.
Organic farming was also below average, taking place on just 3.6 per cent of the total farming land, the third lowest in the EU.
Austria had the most, with 25 per cent of its agricultural land farmed organically.
The figures come from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which is stepping up its release of environmental information to track how Ireland is performing domestically over time and in comparison with EU neighbours and the wider world.
The country’s total greenhouse gas emissions were 53.8 million tonnes last year, a 2 per cent reduction on 2023.
However, if the emissions of airlines based here, including Ryanair, are taken into account then the figure rises to 72.9 million tonnes.
Ireland’s emissions fell by 5.4 per cent compared to the 1990-1994 period when international agreements on climate action came into effect.
That is a slower reduction than the EU as a whole, which reduced emissions by 18 per cent over the same period.
Globally, the picture is very mixed.
China’s emissions increased by 211 per cent over the period.
Although the country is now the world’s largest emitter, accounting for 26 per cent of the world’s total, the per-head-of-population figure is around the same as Ireland’s.
The influence of agriculture on Ireland’s environment and emissions is clear from the CSO figures.
Ireland had 6.4 million cattle at the end of last year, the third biggest herd in the EU, as well as 3.6 million sheep and 1.5 million pigs.
Almost 61 per cent of all land in the country is in grassland, used for pasture for farming.
Farming and forestry combined were responsible for 38 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
The quality of drinking water, cleanliness of wastewater and condition of bathing waters improved over time, but the state of rivers and lakes declined.
In the 1980s, 27 per cent of rivers and streams had high water quality, but that fell to 15 per cent by last year.
