24 May 2022
Go to release: Ireland's UN SDGs - Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production 2021
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 May 2022) published Ireland’s UN SDGs – Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production 2021.
This report is the twelfth in a series of CSO publications which monitor how Ireland is progressing towards meeting its targets under the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Commenting on the publication, Kevin McCormack, Senior Statistician, said:
“This new report, Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production 2021, has data on 13 indicators for Ireland, divided over three chapters: Production, Consumption and Sustainability.
Data are presented in categories such as gender, age group, vulnerable groups and geographical location, where possible. The SDGs and their associated indicators are, by design, wide-ranging in their coverage. As a result, the Irish data is provided by a number of sources including Government departments, official organisations and international organisations such as the UN. The publication for Goal 12 was developed in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
Commenting further on the publication, Kevin McCormack, Senior Statistician, said:
“Fossil fuel subsidies were estimated at €2.2 billion in 2020, a decrease of 23% from €2.8 billion in 2019. In 2000, the first year of the series, total fossil fuel subsidies were estimated at €1.5 billion.
Electricity generated from renewable energy sources was 5,077.3 megawatts in 2020. This equated to 1,020 watts per capita in 2020, up 3% from 2019.
Domestic material consumption (DMC) is a standard material flow accounting (MFA) indicator and reports the apparent consumption of materials in a national economy. DMC was estimated at 121.7 million tonnes in 2019, which was 3.5 million tonnes higher than in 2018. Examples of domestic material are biomass, metallic minerals, non-metallic minerals and fossil fuels.
Ireland generated approximately 1.1 million tonnes of food waste in 2019. The EPA estimates the average Irish household throws out 150 kg of food waste each year - at a cost of approximately €700.
Approximately 1.2 million tonnes of Ireland’s municipal waste were recycled in 2019. This resulted in a recycling rate of 37%, down from 38% in 2018.”
The CSO, Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) and Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri-Ireland) established a project team in April 2017 to engage with a combined UN Statistics Division (UNSD)/Esri research exercise, with a goal to develop and deploy a new approach for monitoring the UN SDG Indicators, using geographic information systems. The result of this exercise is an SDG website (Ireland's SDGs Data Hub, https://irelandsdg.geohive.ie/), hosted on OSi's Geohive platform, which is Ireland’s Central Portal for all SDGs and contains indicators data on the 17 UN SDGs for Ireland. All the indicators in this publication will be loaded onto the Geohive.
The 17 UN SDGs are a set of global development targets adopted by the United Nations (UN) member countries in September 2015 to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. The UN SDGs are driving the global development agenda towards 2030 (Agenda 2030). They address global challenges including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The CSO has a central role in the identification, management, and presentation of the data needed to meet the requirements of the UN SDG Indicators.
Reports currently published in the UN SDG series are:
‘Goal 1 No Poverty’; ‘Goal 2 Zero Hunger’; ‘Goal 3 Good Health and Well-Being’; ‘Goal 4 Quality Education’; ‘Goal 5 Gender Equality’; ‘Goal 6 Clean Water and Sanitation’; ‘Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy’; ‘Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth’; ‘Goal 9 Industry Innovation and Infrastructure'; ‘Goal 10 Reduced Inequalities’ and 'Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities’.
Kevin McCormack (+353) 21 453 5603 or Mary Smyth (+353) 21 453 5309
or email SDG@cso.ie
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