05 August 2022
Go to release: Ireland's UN SDGs - Goal 13 Climate Action 2021
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (05 August 2022) published Ireland’s UN SDGs – Goal 13 Climate Action 2021.
This report is the thirteenth 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 13 Climate Action 2021, has data on eight indicators for Ireland, divided over two chapters: Climate and Strategy. 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 13 was developed in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
Commenting on the findings of the publication, Kevin McCormack, Senior Statistician, said:
“Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas emissions were 61.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2eq) in 2021, which was 4.7% higher than emissions in 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions had led to a significant lowering of emissions. Emissions in 2021 were 1.1% above the 2019 pre-COVID-19 restriction levels data.
Ireland’s contribution to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was €89.2m in 2020, up from €70.2m in 2019. This is also known as the contribution to the international USD $100bn commitment for climate finance under the UNFCCC.
In 2021, Ireland announced a funding package of €3.5m aimed at assisting least developed countries adapt to the effects and impacts of climate change. The funding package consists of two elements: €1 million to the National Adaptation Plan Global Network to support national-level adaptation in developing countries; and €2.5 million to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), to support adaptation activities in some of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries.
According to the UN SDG Global Database for SDG 13.1.3, in Ireland, the proportion of local governments that adopted and implemented local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies was 100%.”
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’, 'Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities’ and 'Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production'.
Kevin McCormack (+353) 21 453 5603 or Mary Smyth (+353) 21 453 5309
or email SDG@cso.ie
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