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Almost all of the objectives in Northern Ireland’s environmental plan are largely off track, the UK’s environment watchdog has warned.

It found good progress had been made towards just two of the 38 targets – air quality and climate change mitigation, mixed progress towards six, limited progress towards 27 and three others could not be assessed.

The watchdog said the current pace and scale of action would not deliver the change that was needed for the plan to be effective.

Environment Minister Andrew Muir said the assessments reinforced the “urgent need for sustained, evidence-led, fully funded action for years to come from across government”.

Prof Robbie MacDonald, chief scientist at the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), said many of the measures were “well within the reach” of the Northern Ireland Executive, and it was a matter of “moving away from planning and strategies into delivery”.

This is the OEP’s first report on the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP), which has been in place since September 2024.

The report acknowledges that some progress has been made in air quality and climate change mitigation.

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