RTÉ pays tribute to Duncan Stewart as Eco Eye ends after 21 years

RTÉ has announced that the Earth Horizon Productions series 'Eco Eye' has come to close after 21 seasons which was presented by Ireland's best-known environment campaigner Duncan Stewart.

RTÉ says 'Eco Eye' has been at the vanguard of highlighting Ireland's environmental and sustainability issues over the past 21 years. It says the show kept viewers informed of the major challenges, as well as giving insights into some of the solutions being tried both in Ireland and across Europe.

A statment said Eco Eye also sounded alarm bells on issues such as water quality and air borne pollution from fossil fuels and other sources.

Presented by Duncan Stewart and more recently by a team of presenters, the series is now drawing to a close as RTÉ says it intends to build on its environment and sustainability content with a number of new series to be delivered over the coming years. 

Jim Jennings, Director of Content, RTÉ paid tribute to Duncan Stewart.

"Duncan Stewart has been a guiding light on climate and sustainability for the past 21 years, long before it was the hot topic it has rightly become. Through Eco Eye and before that, About the House, Duncan Stewart and Earth Horizon Productions played a really important role in bringing issues into the public domain, promoting awareness of the challenges we are facing and also giving us insights into potential solutions.

"He has been a tireless advocate and educator on climate and sustainability issues and we are extremely grateful to him for sharing his expertise knowledge and enthusiasm with our audiences for the past 21 years. We look forward to building on this legacy as we continue to expand our climate coverage working with Earth Horizon and other production companies on a wide range of forthcoming series," he said.

The final episode of Eco Eye will be broadcast on Thursday, February 9 on RTÉ One. RTÉ says it recently undertook a public call for a new climate and sustainability series to replace Eco Eye.  

WATCH: Laois eco farmer turning big profit on Ear to the Ground

The station says details of this new series - which will run on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player in Autumn - will be announced later this year. 

RTÉ says this will sit alongside a number of large-scale climate-based projects to be announced in the coming months as RTÉ continues to enhance its coverage of climate change and its impacts over the next two years. 

WATCH: Laois eco farmer turning big profit on Ear to the Ground

Earth Horizon, the production company that produced Eco Eye has just started pre-production on three documentaries about climate change and sustainability set to be delivered in 2024.