The CSO has published: Environmental Indicators Ireland 2024
The Key Findings include:
- “In Ireland, 2023 was the warmest year in Ireland since data became available in 1961 and the wettest year since data became available in 1941. The average temperature in 2023 was 10.960 Celsius and there was rainfall of 1,511 millimetre recorded.
- Globally, nine of the ten warmest years since 1850 occurred in the decade since 2014. The highest average annual temperature in the world over this timeframe occurred in 2023.
- China was the world’s greatest producer of greenhouse gases in 2022 at 13.9 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, more than twice the USA figure of 6 billion tonnes.
- Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions were 55 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023, down 6.8% from 59 million tonnes in 2022. Ireland had the second highest emissions of greenhouse gases per capita in the EU-27 in 2022, at 11.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
- In 2023, just 1% of urban wastewater received no treatment compared with 41% in 1997-1999.
- Fertiliser sales in Ireland fell by 24% from almost 1.9 million tonnes in 2022 to 1.4 million tonnes in 2023.
- Renewable energy accounted for 41% of electricity generation in Ireland in 2023 up from 5% in 1990-1994.
- The proportion of municipal waste sent to landfill in Ireland fell from an average of 67% between 2001-2004 to 14% in 2022.”
The publication is available here.