The UN’s Sustainability Goals, adopted at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015, are a plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity that commits both developed and developing countries to hitting certain targets by 2030.
The targets, or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), cover a range of ambitions including an end to poverty, sustainable economic development, protection of the environment and access to health and education services.
In Ireland the two policy drivers for major change are the 2021 Climate Action Plan, with its key target to halve carbon emissions by 2030, and the introduction of Ireland’s first five-year carbon budget to limit emissions across all sectors of the economy. So how are we doing?
“As a nation we can look to the decarbonisation of our energy sector and see significant progress on the climate action agenda. All of the relevant players have strong decarbonisation plans. We continue to bring renewables onto the grid, and are tracking strongly against the 80 per cent target set for 2030,” says Stephen Prendiville, head of sustainability at EY Ireland.
Accelerating Ireland’s offshore renewable strategy is now critical, he says. And by the end of this year we should also have a national hydrogen strategy. While a spike in oil and gas prices had already been exercising minds prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the focus has intensified.
“The current energy crisis has spurred a renewed sense of urgency, and the illumination of the strong link between our renewable energy strategy, energy self-sufficiency and security, and cost. Ireland’s response has been positive in this regard, and I hope we see a debottlenecking of the planning process that can facilitate more projects getting greenlit in the coming year on the back of this crisis,” says Prendiville.
Fragmented
He believes the energy sector’s momentum for decarbonisation could be modelled across other big emission sectors.
“In transport, policy and vision is more fragmented across many different stakeholder groups. We need a unifying vision of what decarbonisation in this sector means, where we will push in terms of electrification, alternative fuels, level and modes of travel, demand management, public transport provision and much more,” he says.
“As a system our transport network and its decarbonisation has vast complexities that need to be considered in parallel, and this work, while advanced in some areas, has yet to be harmonised at that system level.”
This is true of agricultural too.
“Subsectors and stakeholders at different stages of the value chain have different plans and initiatives to decarbonise. While a marginal abatement cost curve and a plan for up to 12 per cent emissions reductions currently exists, a unified and cohesive vision for the sector when it comes to decarbonisation is still missing – and equally will be difficult to agree. Agriculture also, unlike transport, needs to consider global competitiveness factors and our position in a global food supply system.”
While Ireland has made significant gains in momentum over the past year “in many respects we have yet to get into the meat of the issues, challenges, and opportunities that decarbonisation will present to us as a nation. This is the last year to truly get this right and have a positive just transition associated with our climate action and sustainability goals - the rest of this decade must focus on bold action,” says Prendiville.
Relationships
While Ireland has made significant progress in aligning SDG implementation with individual government departments, this approach does not fully recognise the trade-offs and synergistic relationships between SDGs, says Russell Smyth, partner and head of KPMG Sustainable Futures.
Doing so will be crucial for coherent and effective decision-making and in achieving long-lasting sustainable outcomes, he says.
“Meeting the ambitious targets of the Climate Action Plan to halve carbon emissions by 2030 will address not only SDG13 but will produce benefits across all 17 SDGs by modernising infrastructure, creating jobs and improving health and wellbeing,” says Smyth.
He believes the 475 actions set out in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2021 demonstrate the strong ambition Ireland has set for delivering on the country’s climate and wider sustainability agenda.
However, meeting Ireland’s climate targets will be no small feat as demonstrated in the modest 3.6 reduction in 2020 emissions compared to 2019 despite the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 and the associated lockdown of society.
“Deep transformative change economy-wide is urgently needed to ensure Ireland is on track to reaching net zero emissions by 2050,” says Smyth.
