Ireland’s ammonia emissions increased by one per cent in 2021 as an increase in the number of livestock and fertiliser use outdid the effects of emission reduction measures implemented in the country’s farms, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to the EPA, Ireland has now failed to comply with EU National Emission Reduction Commitments for nine of the past 10 years for ammonia emissions. Such emissions cause “significant environmental damage to valuable ecosystems and can also impact local air quality and human health”, says the protection agency.
In January of this year, Ireland was one of 14 EU states issued with a letter of formal notice by the European Commission which called on countries to respect their emission reduction commitments. The letter related to the Ireland exceeding its 2020 emission reduction commitment for ammonia.
A three per cent rise in dairy cow numbers played a role in the increase in total national ammonia emissions in 2021, according to an EPA report published on Wednesday. While there was an increase in the use of low emission slurry spreading, rising to 48 per cent, the EPA says that this was not enough to counteract the impact of the overall growth in livestock numbers.
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Eimear Cotter, director of the EPA’s office of evidence and assessment, said that “more and faster uptake of known measures is needed” if Ireland is to comply with its emissions targets.
“While compliance with the EU 2030 targets for ammonia is possible, it will be tight and is at risk should anything less than full implementation of all measures be delivered, or if the level of activity in the sector exceeds projections.”
The EPA report also says that the use of coal and fuel oil in power generation trebled in 2021, leading to increases in emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and sulphur dioxide. The report says the increase displays the direct link between fossil fuel use and air pollutant emissions.
According to the EPA, Ireland was compliant in 2021 with EU emissions reduction commitments for the other key air pollutants; non-methane volatile organic compounds, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter.
The EPA has called for additional actions that it says are required to reduce emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds in the spirit production sector.
