Ireland is not doing very well on climate change and sustainability compared with most other European countries. The most recent report available was compiled by Bertelsmann and ranked Ireland's performance against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
These goals seek to achieve more than 150 targets aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all people by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals Index compares different nations’ progress in relation to the goals and is the first worldwide study to assess where each country stands in this regard.
The report shows that Ireland has made progress on some of the social goals but the country continues to perform poorly when it comes to action on waste, climate action and ocean protection. Ireland also scores poorly on biodiversity and sustainable production and consumption measures.
Most tellingly, the report says no progress is being made in relation to key areas such as emissions within Ireland, emissions contained in the goods we consume, and climate change vulnerability.
This is in line with the findings of the Climate Action Network Europe report published in 2018, which ranked countries as good, bad and ugly in relation to climate action. Ireland, unfortunately, was ranked in the ugly category.
"Estonia, Ireland and Poland rank lowest because of their stiff opposition to climate action nationally and in the EU," the report found. "These countries should be supporting stronger climate action because of the numerous co-benefits of speeding up the transition."
Waste management
To put this in context, Ireland scored just 21 out of a possible 100 points on the scale used. Only Poland with 16 points had a lower score. Top of the league were Sweden with 77, Portugal with 66 and France with 65.
Ireland fared slightly better in another report compiled by Social Justice Ireland, where it ranked Ireland 10th out of 15 comparable EU countries on measures including the economy, society and the environment. The 2020 Sustainable Progress Index placed Ireland seventh overall on the social index with a strong performance in areas such as education, and peace and justice.
Ireland ranked last on the environment index, however. And came 13th out of 15 for responsible consumption and production. Poor waste management was highlighted in the report, with Ireland’s production of municipal waste one of the highest among the 15 countries studied.
Ireland also came 13th out of 15 for climate action, which reflects the failure to meet its commitment as part of its Europe 2020 strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 compared with its 1990 levels.
But there are grounds for optimism, according to KPMG global renewables and decarbonisation leader Mike Hayes. "I am hugely encouraged by the current Government's approach to climate action," he says. "Personally speaking, I was absolutely thrilled with the programme for government. It contains many of the elements that I have been seeking for years. The challenge now is to follow through on those commitments. We need more and more resources to be made available to government departments to deal with the incredible challenges facing them in this area."
They mean business
The change is not confined to government. “Both the public and private sectors are getting it,” Hayes adds. “We have seen a transformation in Irish business in the last nine months. They are no longer ignoring it. Awareness is one thing, but you need the skills and expertise to do something about it. I’m broadly satisfied that Irish business is on the journey. Public sector organisations in particular are at the forefront of the change.”
Prof Andreas Hoepner of UCD School of Business also sees cause for optimism in relation to Irish business. "Irish companies are pretty good," he says. "I am supervising a project surveying this, and many of them are well informed in relation to sustainability. There is a lot coming up for companies in this area, however, so there is a lot to learn in future. But they are in a decent position."