Sustainable Progress Index 2025: Environment

The Sustainable Progress Index 2025 comprises of three dimensions, economy, society and the environment. Ireland is ranked 11^th on the environment index. Significant challenges remain 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 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.

The Environment Index is constructed by combining 7 SDGs  ( 6,7,11,12,13,14 and 15). Country scores and rankings for the Environment Index are shown below. Our analysis sees Ireland in 11^th among the EU14, implying the country faces significant challenges in meeting our commitment to the environment goals set out in Agenda 2030.

SDG 6 ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’

Ensuring the availability, cleanliness and hygiene and management of sustainable water is the main aim of SDG6.  Water is a basic need so this goal calls for universal access to safe and affordable drinking water. 

In the EU, aavailable data for SDG6 paint a mixed picture for the EU. On the positive side, the share of people without appropriate sanitation facilities in their households has been steadily decreasing, and connectivity to at least secondary wastewater treatment has been improving slowly. However, trends regarding water quality are less favourable (Eurostat, 2024, p.15). Further, water scarcity is a concern, with the EU’s water exploitation index showing a slightly increasing trend in recent years.

Results for this SDG in Ireland, which draw on 4 indicators, are also mixed. Indicators for access to improved drinking water and sanitation show further development is required. The proportion of wastewater that is treated is lower in Ireland relative to the best performing countries (ranked in 10^th place). On a positive note, Ireland scores well on Eurostat’s water exploitation index, which is a measure of total fresh water use as a percentage of the renewable fresh-water resources (groundwater and surface water) – Ireland is ranked in 4^th place here.

The overall score puts Ireland in joint 10^th place on this goal.

SDG 7 ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ 

SDG7 advocates access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy services. In order to fulfill demands, the goal calls on countries to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology and to promote investment in resource- and energy-efficient solutions and low-carbon energy infrastructure.  

The goal-level assessment in the latest edition of Eurostat has deteriorated compared with the 2023 edition, “partly due to the repercussions of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine” (Eurostat, 2024, p.15). Similarly, our assessment suggests Ireland is also performing poorly on this goal. We use 4 indicators to reflect SDG7. Ireland’s CO2 emissions from energy fuels combustion/electricity output (MtCO2/TW) are one of the highest in the sample. And the share of renewable energy is one of the lowest relative to our EU peers and is well below the EU average. On the other hand, final energy consumption in household per capita has fallen since 2000 and is now below the EU average (2023 data, Eurostat). The score for the proportion of people who are unable to keep their home adequately warm places Ireland in the middle of the rankings.

Combining the indicators gives a score that ranks Ireland in joint 10^th place, suggesting that Ireland, like other EU countries, is struggling to meet the objectives of this goal.

SDG 11 ‘Sustainable cities and communities’  

SDG11 focuses on quality of life in cities and communities, sustainable transport and adverse environmental impacts. 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.

4 indicators are used here to mirror SDG11. We omit some of the official indicators that are more relevant to developing countries. On the plus side, air pollution is less of a problem in Ireland’s urban areas than in many other EU countries – Ireland is ranked 3rd, with the Scandinavian countries doing better. Our second indicator attempts to capture ‘satisfaction with public transport’ and Ireland does poorly on this indicator (rank of 12). As the SDG calls for safe and affordable housing, we include a measure of severe housing deprivation (Eurostat data). We do better on this relative to other countries in the sample (rank of 3). We also do well on the road accidents indicator (rank of 3).

Our choice of indicators suggest Ireland does well on this SDG. The overall score for quality of life in our cities and communities places Ireland in 2^nd place.

SDG 12 ‘Responsible consumption and production’ 

Consumption and production – key driving forces in the global economy – are the focus of SDG12. The main aim of SDG12 is about doing more and better with less. It calls for adopting sustainable practices and procedures for business and an increase in environmentally friendly activity by consumers to enhance sustainable consumption and production. Activity would be supported through the development of new technologies, production and consumption methods.

In the EU, the focus is on developments in the area of decoupling environmental impacts from economic growth, energy consumption, and waste generation and management. However, at the EU level, progress has been mixed. Similar trends are seen in Ireland. We use 6 indicators to generate our SDG12 assessment. Ireland ranks poorly overall on this SDG.  Production of municipal waste is high among the sample of countries here, although it has fallen. The recycling rate of municipal waste is still very low (ranked 10^th) and the indicator for circular material use (%) is the lowest among the countries. The overall score and rank of 11 based on our indicators shows the extent of the challenge facing Ireland on this goal.

SDG 13 ‘Climate Action’ 

SDG 13 seeks to implement the commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and operationalize 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.

Climate mitigation, climate impacts, and climate initiatives that support climate action are the main focus of this goal in the EU context. Commenting on the EU’s progress on this SDG, Eurostat note that greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 31 % since 1990, but stronger progress will be required to meet the ambitious 55 % reduction target for 2030 (Eurostat, 2024, p.14).

International agencies still find measuring this goal problematic when attempting to determine important trends. This is due to data limitations (for example, reliable and comprehensive measures of mitigation, impacts and initiatives). Our assessment of this SDG consists of 3 indicators. Eurostat utilize GHG emissions as a key indicator under this SDG and we use it here.

Ireland’s emissions have for the most part declined over the years, but they continue to be above the EU average. Ireland is ranked last on this indicator. Our second indicator, emissions from passenger cars has certainly improved over the years and we are in the middle ranking for this measure. Our final indicator is the effective carbon tax rate[1] and Ireland is ranked 4^th on this measure. Overall, however, the score for SDG13 is poor among the EU15 and Ireland is in 10^th place.

[1] The effective carbon rate is the sum of taxes and tradeable permits that put a price on carbon emissions. The measure here comes from the OECD and excludes CO2 from biomass. 

SDG 14 ‘Life below Water’  

The aim of SDG14 is to conserve and sustain the use of oceans, seas and marine resources. Careful management of this essential global resource is a key priority for a sustainable future. Hence, SDG14 aims to reduce marine pollution, ocean acidification and overfishing as addressed through policy.

Due to data limitations, it has, 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. Eurostat present some results for this SDG, but it is difficult to estimate how each country is contributing to ocean health and fishing pressure. Based on available information however, Eurostat argue that unfavourable trends are visible: due to the absorption of CO2 into the world’s oceans, the mean surface seawater acidity is continuing to increase, and in 2022 reached another unprecedented high over pre-industrial levels (Eurostat, 2024, p.13). 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, 2024, p.13). Hence caution is advised in interpreting the findings here.

Given the data limitations at country level, our SDG14 is computed using 3 indicators for 12 countries[1], based on data on protected marine sites (important to biodiversity), quality of bathing sites by locality (from Eurostat) and a measure of ocean health available from the Ocean Health Index[2] which has estimates of ocean health by country. The overall score gives it a ranking of 8 on this SDG.

[1] Both Austria and Luxembourg are landlocked – hence there is no data for this goal. 

[2] http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/region-scores/annual-scores-and-rankings. We use the clean waters score from the Index.

SDG 15 ‘Life on land’ 

SDG15 is one of the key goals, along with SDG14 that incorporates environmental considerations for all UN member countries. It seeks to protect, restore and promote the conservation and sustainability of ecosystems. SDG 15 is concerned with the use of terrestrial, inland-water and mountain ecosystems, which are enhanced by halting deforestation, restoring degraded land and protecting species. This is especially important given global trends such as population growth and accelerating urbanization.

Eurostat’s assessment of SDG 15 is grim. They argue that their assessment “confirms the results of other stocktaking reports and evaluations, which conclude that the conservation status of ecosystems and biodiversity in the EU is unfavourable, and that the negative impacts of EU life-style patterns on (global) biodiversity are considerable” (Eurostat, 2024, p.16).

We settle on five indicators to reflect SDG15. Ireland scores well on the protected freshwater indicator but less well on the protected terrestrial areas indicators. The Red List index which estimates biodiversity loss ranks Ireland in 9^th place. Finally, the share of land dedicated for forestry and woodland (19%) is one of the lowest in the sample and is well below the EU average, with Ireland performing poorly on this indicator. Combining the indicators gives Ireland an overall rank on this SDG of 13.