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Quarry tax outcome
Wind farm for north coast
North Down Dump on Scotland
Written warning over pollution laws
Northern Ireland in the dock
Strangford Lough saved?
GM maize approved
Legal wranglings over illegal waste
Europe issues legal warning
Strangford trawling ban extended
Water Service pollutes salmon river
See you in court!
Environmental governance inquiry gets underway
Environment review moving fast
EPA denied
Belfast says No to incinerator
Belfast makes waves for climate justice
Planning and the climate challenge
An evening well spent with Michael Meacher
Green housing plan launched
Tell world leaders to turn down the heat
Mexican stand-off
NI Water must not be immune from the law.
People Power for Positive Planning
Friends of the Earth launches its first plastic bag
Assembly end of term report - must do better
Activism Gathering 2011
What do you think of the planning system?
Green No Deal?
A vision for the Programme for Government
Come to a screening of 'Gasland'
Plan it!
- Resource
Environmental Protection25 May 2010
Northern Ireland has the least protected environment in the UK and Ireland.
For example, in 2003 over 40 per cent of companies failed to comply with their licences to pollute water. This compares with around 30 per cent in England and Wales - and just 16 per cent in Scotland.
Elsewhere, the story is no less depressing:
- Raw sewage is pumped into the sea at our top costal resorts
- Premier wildlife sites are trashed
- Illegal landfill sites are spreading across our countryside
Presiding over all this is an ineffective and complacent environmental watchdog - the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS), an agency of the Department of the Environment.
We are forced to rely on the European Commission to protect our environment.
European Commission
Time and time again Friends of the Earth has had to turn to the European Commission to make sure Northern Ireland's environment is properly protected.
In recent years we have made complaints on sewage (PDF - 182K), waste, wildlife (PDF) and Water Service's Crown immunity (PDF - 81K) from prosecution for pollution.
Did you know?
Northern Ireland's Environment and Heritage Service is not allowed to object to planning applications in areas with inadequate sewage treatment. This muzzling would not be tolerated anywhere else in the UK.
Towards an independent environmental protection agency
Friends of the Earth, together with other environmental groups, successfully campaigned for a Review of Environmental Protection.
The Review published it's recommendations in June 2007. Top of the list was the creation of an independent Environmental Protection Agency.
Read our submission to the Review.
Read the Review's final report, Foundations for the Future
Filthy factories, dodgy dumps and squalid sewage
Do you know of a polluting factory? Is a landfill site contaminating your water? Is your local beach spoiled by raw sewage?
Our Adopt a polluter (PDF - 241K) campaign action guide can help you fight back. We'd love you to join our campaign to clean up Northern Ireland!
Pollution >
Environmental Protection Agency>
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