Environment agency picks chairwoman

Laura Burke, head of Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency, has been appointed to chair the board of the European Environment Agency.

Burke, whose background is in chemical engineering, took up her post at the EEA on 1 September, replacing Elisabeth Freytag-Rigler at the end of the latter’s three-year term. She will continue her director’s post at Ireland’s EPA, which she has held since 2011.

“Our biggest task going forward is to make sure that European citizens understand the vital role the environment plays in our everyday lives,” Burke said, singling out climate change and air pollution as some of the biggest threats.