Ms Meaghan Carmody:

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus le baill an choiste as an gcuireadh chun aghaidh a thabhairt orthu inniu.Coalition 2030 is grateful for the invitation to address the committee today on matters relating to the achievement of the sustainable development goals, SDGs.

Coalition 2030 is an alliance of 70 civil society organisations and networks across the international development, domestic anti-poverty and equality, environment and trade union sectors, all working to ensure that Ireland keeps its promise to achieve the SDGs by 2030, and to contribute to their achievement abroad.

As outlined in the Brundtland report of 1987, sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In 2015, all UN member states signed up to Agenda 2030, and with that committed to progressing the 17 goals and their 130 underlying targets. It remains today that the SDGs represent the only universally agreed framework for meeting the needs of all without overshooting planetary boundaries. The SDGs are deeply interconnected. A lack of progress on one goal hinders progress on others.

We are almost halfway through the period of time to achieve the SDGs, and the global community is facing a complex set of crises that are undoing gains on progress, namely, the cost of living, conflict, an acute global hunger crisis, and climate change, not to mention the impacts of Covid-19. In a 2021 Nature study entitled, The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations, it was found that no country currently meets the basic needs of its population at a level of resource use that could be sustainably extended to all people globally. In other words, no country is developing sustainably, including Ireland. The authors suggest deep transformations are needed to safeguard human and planetary health. Current trends will only deepen the ecological crisis, while failing to eliminate social shortfalls.

A core tenet of the SDGs is that states reach those in society who are the furthest behind, first. My colleagues and I from Coalition 2030 would like to give the committee a sense of the urgent action Ireland needs to take from an environmental and climate perspective if it is to meet its SDG targets, as well as to outline what we believe constitute key blockages to SDG achievement more broadly.

Climate change disproportionately impacts first and worst those who have done the least to cause it, both within and between countries. Nevertheless, Ireland’s emissions are still rising, and while the climate action plan contains welcome commitments, several weaknesses remain. In Ireland today, it is clear that the energy needs of those furthest behind remain unmet. For example, energy is a fundamental need which enables the fulfilment of multiple human rights, yet energy poverty threatens more than a third of Irish households. Initiatives to retrofit homes run the risk of leaving some people further behind, as the upfront costs make it inaccessible to many low-income households. The energy upgrade scheme designed to target households in energy poverty is not accessible to tenants in the private rental sector.

Travellers, in particular, experience significant levels of energy poverty, and are still largely dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. Traveller families in trailers are also excluded from access to retrofitting grants, and current policies and structures make it difficult to switch to using low-emission transport. Other groups, including people living with disabilities and single parent households, are at particular risk of extreme fuel poverty.

The one-off energy measures in budget 2023 do not go far enough, as once this money is gone, it is gone. What is more, energy efficiency measures and supports are not being delivered anywhere near the scale required and are not proactively targeting the increasing number of households at risk of energy poverty.

Any emission reduction targets for the residential sector must prioritise policies that result in a radical reduction in energy deprivation. Additionally, alongside increases in social welfare payments and the fuel allowance, wider accessibility to Government retrofitting schemes, grants and low-cost loans for retrofits are needed.

Coalition 2030 has identified a number of barriers to broad SDG implementation in Ireland. These include: inadequate resourcing of the SDG unit, especially given the sheer number of actions in the national implementation plan for which the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is the lead; the lack of SDG integration into national and departmental budgeting; a dearth of reporting on SDG progress at target level; and the insufficient collection of disaggregated data also act as blockages to SDG progress. With seven years to go to achieve the SDGs, these obstacles must be unblocked in order to create an environment where the State has the best possible chance of reaching the goals in Ireland and abroad.

This year represents a golden opportunity for Ireland to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable development. For the first time in five years, Ireland will, in July, present a review of its SDG progress to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in New York. With Qatar, Ireland is also cofacilitating the political declaration for the SDGs, which will form a core element of the SDG summit in September, which marks the halfway point to 2030. In this pivotal year, this Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action has an opportunity to be a champion for the SDGs, ensuring that action for sustainable development leaves no one behind and reaches the furthest behind first. We strongly suggest that this committee regularly engages all relevant Ministers to assess SDG progress.

My colleagues and I would welcome questions and comments from the committee.