Did you know ?
The Social Justice Ireland ‘Measuring Progress’ report comprises three dimensions: economy, society and environment.
Ireland is ranked 9th out of the 14 countries on the economy. On the social index, Ireland is in the middle of the ranking, in 7th place. Ireland is at the bottom of the ranking on the environment index highlighting the major challenges we face in meeting our environmental goals set out in Agenda 2030.
Below is a summary of the main points regarding our rankings under Environment.
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Ireland is at the bottom of the ranking on the environment index. Significant challenges exist if Ireland is to meet our commitment to the environment goals set out in Agenda 2030. Ireland’s score has improved on some environmental SDGs, notably on SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’, but poor performance on goals relating to water quality, affordable and clean energy, responsible production and consumption, and climate change are among the key factors driving the result for this dimension.
SDG 6 ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’
SDG 6 calls for universal access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. It aims at improving water quality, water use efficiency and sustainable supply.
The results for Ireland are also mixed. Relative to other countries, we score well on Eurostat’s water exploitation index – Ireland is ranked in 4th place. Less favourable is our performance on the proportion of wastewater that is treated – Ireland is in 9th place. Also, indicators for access to improved drinking water and sanitation show further development is required. Ireland’s overall rank on this SDG is 11.
SDG 6: Rank = 11
SDG 7 ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’
Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy services to fulfil demands is a key aim of SDG7. Specifically, it focuses on improving
energy efficiency, access to modern energy services and increasing the share of renewable energy.
Our assessment of SDG7 indicates Ireland is performing poorly relative on this goal. We use 4 indicators to compute our measure. The share of renewable energy is one of the lowest relative to our EU peers and is well below the EU average. We also do poorly on the measure of CO2 emissions from energy fuels combustion/electricity output (MtCO2/TW). We do better on the indicator of final energy consumption in household per capita (Ireland is in 6th place). Our final indicator – the proportion of people who are unable to keep their home adequately warm – shows Ireland ranked 10th. Overall, our combined indicators give Ireland a score with a rank of 14 – last among the countries examined here.
SDG 7: Rank = 14
SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’
The focus of SDG11 is on designing cities, towns, and communities in a safe, resilient and sustainable manner. It aims to make cities safe and sustainable by ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, investing in infrastructure, and improving planning and management in a way that is both participatory and inclusive.
Some of the official indicators for this goal are more relevant to developing countries. We use 5 indicators, drawing mainly on Eurostat’s data, to reflect this goal. Air pollution is less of a problem in Ireland’s urban areas compared to other countries, outranked by just the Scandinavian countries. Our second indicator attempts to capture ‘satisfaction with public transport’ and we are in the middle rankings for this measure. A third indicator captures the extent of rent over-burden – we use OECD data to reflect the theme of ‘safe and affordable housing’. OECD proposes that households that spend more than 40 per cent of disposable income on housing are considered “overburdened” (OECD, 2019). Compared to other countries, Ireland does relatively well on this indicator, although the data does not reflect the current crisis. Our final two measures are CO2 emissions from passenger cars (Ireland is ranked 7) and the proportion of
fatal car accidents (Ireland is in 3rd place).
Ireland does well on this SDG: the overall score for quality of life in our cities and communities shows Ireland in 2nd place.
SDG 11: Rank = 2
SDG 12 ‘Responsible consumption and production’
Trends concerning SDG 12 have been mixed in the EU. Indicators for this SDG focus on waste generation, circular material use, electronic waste, raw material consumption and the recycling of waste. Our analysis shows that Ireland continues to generate a significant
amount of municipal waste per capita, (11th place), while the recycling 62 rate of municipal waste and circular material use is low (11 and 14 rank respectively). Combining all our indicators show Ireland continues to struggle on the achievement of this goal. The overall score puts Ireland in 10th place on this SDG.
SDG 12: Rank = 10
SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’
On fulfilling the promise to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and operationalising the Green Climate Fund, SDG 13 integrates climate change mitigation and measures into strategies and policies to reduce the severity from the effects of climate related hazards and natural disasters.
In the EU context, SDG13 focuses on three themes: climate mitigation, climate impacts, and climate initiatives that support climate action. There have been improvements in this SDG in the EU. According to provisional estimates for 2021, “the EU has already reduced its net greenhouse gas emissions by about 30% since 1990”. However, “stronger progress will be required to meet the ambitious 55% reduction target for 2030” (Eurostat, 2023, p. 15).
Problems with data availability however (for example, reliable and comprehensive measures of mitigation, impacts and initiatives) make
this one of the SDGs that international agencies still find problematic when attempting to determine important trends. A key indicator used by Eurostat is GHG emissions. In recent years, Ireland has witnessed a fluctuation in its GHG emissions but it continues to be well above the EU average. Ireland is ranked second last on this indicator, based on most recent data, second only to Luxembourg. We do better on the indicator that reflects the carbon pricing score24 and the overall score ranks Ireland in (joint) 9th place on this SDG.
SDG 13 Rank = 9
SDG 14 ‘Life below Water’
The conservation of the oceans by safeguarding and ensuring their sustainable use is the aim of SDG14. It aims to reduce marine pollution, ocean acidification and overfishing as addressed through policy. The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. Hence, a key priority for a sustainable future is the careful management of this goal.
Available data measuring the themes of this SDG are still limited in scope. Hence caution is advised in interpreting the findings here. For example, it has been, and continues to be, difficult to estimate how each country is contributing to ocean health. Ocean acidification poses a risk to the marine environment and global climate regulation. The EU has “made only moderate progress towards SDG14, based on the most recent data” (Eurostat, 2023, p. 14). Similarly, available data for protected marine sites do not provide an indication of the sites’ conservation status nor the effectiveness of the protection they offer to species and habitats (Eurostat, 2022, p.13).
Given the data limitations at country level, our SDG14 is computed using 3 indicators for 12 countries25, based on data on protected marine sites and quality of bathing sites by locality from Eurostat. Estimates of ocean health, including ocean acidity are available from the Ocean Health Index26 which measures ocean health by country. The overall score gives it a ranking of 8 on this SDG. Given time, it is hoped better quality data will allow for more reliable estimates of SDG14.
SDG 14 Rank = 8 (out of 12)
SDG 15 ‘Life on land’
SDG15 seeks to protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial, inland water and mountain ecosystems. It is one of the key goals, along with SDG14 that incorporates environmental considerations for all UN member countries. Data availability means monitoring of SDG 15 also remains somewhat limited. At EU level, recent trends in the indicators selected show “some
slight improvements combined with a few clearly negative developments that result in an overall slightly negative goal-level assessment” (Eurostat, 2023, p. 16).
Five indicators are selected here to mirror SDG15. Ireland scores high on indicators of the share of protected terrestrial areas and share of
freshwater areas. The score on the Red List index which estimates biodiversity loss is less favourable, Finally, Ireland has a low share of land dedicated for forestry and woodland (19%) which is well below the EU average – Ireland is ranked 12 on this measure. The final indicator from Eurostat, the Soil Seal Index, gives a score that puts Ireland in 13th place. Combining the indicators gives Ireland an overall rank on this SDG15 of 7.
SDG 15 Rank = 7
