Science Flash For You - Ireland

The transport sector is responsible for the highest increase of emissions, even if most of it refers to the period until 2005. The building sector followed an opposite trend: emissions from housing dropped by 34% over the period covered.

Global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels combustion and processes decreased by 5.1% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the world’s largest CO₂ emitters, only China has shown an increase in emissions in 2020 (+1.5%) while for all others figures go downwards: in the EU27 by 10.6%, more sharply than in the United States, Japan, India and Russia.

EU27 total fossil CO₂ emissions had already decreased over the past two decades. In 2019 they were 23.2% lower than in 1990 and 20.7% lower than in 2005. The EU27 share of the global total emissions decreased from 8.5% to 7.3% between 2015 and 2020.

Emission data for fossil CO₂ are available in EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) for each country in the world, from 1970 to 2020. At COP26 in Glasgow, the JRC co-organised eleven side events, launched new scientific tools and presented several reports.

PM2.5 particles include both directly emitted dust, smoke, soot, pollen and soil particles and particles that form directly in the atmosphere. They are responsible for adverse health effects. In 2019, they were estimated to have caused about 307,000 premature deaths in the EU.

The Atlas gives a detailed picture of how transport, agriculture, industry, residential heating and shipping emissions affect PM2.5 pollution. It also clarifies the role that cities, regions, Member States and the EU can have in the reduction of air pollution, as locally specific circumstances are relevant to design effective air quality plans. The results have been produced using a simplified air quality model developed by the JRC called SHERPA.

The most severe event occurred near Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim in April, resulting in damage to 100 hectares of mainly State-owned forestry. The fire was the result of the deliberate burning of illegally dumped household waste.

For the whole region covered by the report, after the worst-ever year in 2019, 2020 was slightly better but data for 2021 are bad again. At the time of the release of the report, almost 0.5 million hectares have gone up in flames, 61% of it being forests that will take years to recover.

Even if the EU has reinforced its capacity to assist countries in 2021, especially for the large fires in the Mediterranean region, fires are also a growing threat for central and northern Europe. More than nine out of ten fires in the EU are caused by human actions.

The JRC provides a key contribution to wildfire disaster risk reduction in Europe and globally through the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). This tool supports the EU’s work to prevent wildfires, preserve forest, recover biodiversity and save lives. Building on the EU biodiversity strategy, as part of the European Green Deal in July the Commission proposed the new EU Forest Strategy for 2030.

The 2021 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet confirms that in 2019, the fleet maintained overall profitability. The report projects similar profitability levels for 2020, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fleet segments operating in the North-Eastern Atlantic, where most fished stocks are managed at sustainable levels, registered higher economic performance than those operating in the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Sea regions, where many stocks still face overfishing. These results provide evidence that there is a strong link between sustainable fishing, economic performance, better salaries and new job opportunities in our coastal communities.

The Report gives an overview of the structure and economic performance of the 22 coastal EU Member State fishing fleets. It is the result of combined work by the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee of Fisheries (STECF) and the European Commission. In this context, JRC provides and analyses data.

About 27% of cases affecting women are breast cancers, while among men the most diffused is prostate cancer with 31%. Both typologies are by far the most diffused within the respective gender.

ECIS provides the latest information on indicators that quantify cancer burden across Europe. It permits the exploration of geographical patterns and temporal trends of incidence, mortality and survival data across Europe for the major cancer entities. It contains the latest estimates of cancer incidence and mortality in Ireland.

The purpose of the web application is to support research as well as public-health decision-making in the field of cancer and to serve as a point of reference and information for European citizens.

Almost seven out of ten of these jobs are in the services sector. In addition, Irish extra-EU exports also support over 490.000 jobs in other EU Countries.

The new report, released by JRC and Directorate General for Trade, provides statistics on the European jobs connected to European exports. It shows how important trade has become for European jobs, with EU exports currently supporting over 38 million jobs.

The report uses reliable and comparable statistics to understand how global trade flows affect employment in the EU. The two main novelties of this report are the re-estimation of all trade and jobs figures for the EU27 and calculating the trade and jobs figures for the year 2019.