Ireland’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals - Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action

Social Justice Ireland made a recent submission to the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action on progress in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals. Social Justice Ireland tracks Ireland’s progress on achieving the SDGs annually through the Sustainable Progress Index. This annual report measures Ireland’s performance across all 17 SDGs and compares our performance against 14 EU countries. The 2024 report uses 82 indicators across the 17 goals to analyse performance.

Ireland ranks 8th out of 14 comparable EU countries in this year’s Sustainable Progress Index. On the social index, Ireland is in the middle of the ranking, in 7th place. Ireland is towards the bottom of the ranking on the environment index, in 11th place highlighting the major challenges we face in meeting our environmental goals set out in Agenda 2030.

At the midpoint of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, a reality check reveals significant challenges are still evident in meeting some goals. There are obvious pressing sustainability issues in the areas reflected by SDG 7 ‘Affordable and clean energy’ and SDG12, ‘Responsible consumption. The low proportion of renewables in our energy mix points to the need for significant policy action to ensure that current energy needs continue to be met without jeopardizing future generations. Ireland is also seriously underperforming in areas such as clean water, innovation and infrastructure, gender equality, and sustainable agriculture. This is dragging our overall ranking down even though we are performing well in some areas. At present, we are failing to balance core essentials such as economic and social progress, sustaining the planet’s environment and resources and combatting climate change.

Equipped with the global goals as tools for guidance and accountability, Government has the opportunity to address current social imbalances, lead the way towards a new generation of politics shaped by policies for the common good which promote well-being and support the economic, social and environmental demands of a truly healthy society. The SDGs are designed to refocus efforts towards policies that directly help people and communities in the long run. In this regard, the SDGs are complementary to Ireland’s Well-being Framework, with significant cross-over between the SDGs and the eleven dimensions of the Well-being Framework (see Appendix B). Explicitly linking each of the seventeen SDGs to the eleven dimensions of the Well-being Framework would help mutually reinforce each another and ensure policy coherence between our national targets and our international commitments. This reinforcement would support coherent policy making and improve outcomes. A properly functioning Well-being Framework would support Ireland to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and likewise, a commitment to achieving the SDGS would lead to improved well-being and living standards for all.

The full debate can be accessed at 1:57:30 here. 

Social Justice Ireland’s submission to the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action is available here.