Role of NIEA

Research and evidence

As the Agency responsible for environmental monitoring, NIEA plays a significant role in providing data for use in reports such as the 2007 Scotland and Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER) report 'Preparing for Climate Change in Northern Ireland'. For this reason a number of indicators related to climate change mitigation and adaptation are included in the NIEA State of the Environment Report (2008), a summary of which is available on our website: State of the Environment Report Summary(.PDF 1.69Mb).

The first annual update report(.PDF 969Kb) is also available.

NIEA is also involved in a number of working groups and research partnerships across UK and Ireland intended to provide an appropriate evidence base on which to base operation strategy and against which to assess progress. In addition to our involvement with the SNIFFER research programme, climate change work is also undertaken by NIEA though the Natural Heritage Research Partnership with Queen’s University Belfast (QUERCUS) and involvement with a number of other projects across the UK and Ireland. A number of climate change related research projects can be accessed through our Science and Research section.

Discharges from industry can impact on air quality and NIEA works to control emissions from those industries with the greatest potential to cause air pollution – further information is available in our Industrial Pollution and Radiochemical Inspectorate page.