Sustainable development goals
To achieve sustainable development will require action not only by government but also by individuals across society.
What do Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mean to you?
Introduction
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encourages countries to develop national responses to the Sustainable Development Goals and incorporate them into planning and policy.
The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has lead responsibility for promoting and overseeing national implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This is a whole-of-government initiative where all Ministers retain responsibility for implementing the individual Sustainable Development Goals relating to their functions.
The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has been assigned responsibility for preparing the first Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan and the Voluntary National Review.
The first National Implementation Plan was published in early 2018. The plan sets out arrangements for interdepartmental coordination, stakeholder engagement and periodic progress reporting at national and global levels.
Ireland’s first Voluntary National Review was submitted to the UN in June 2018, and formally presented to the UN High-Level Political Forum at the UN Headquarters in New York in July 2018.
Background to the Goals
In September 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity and applies to both developed and developing countries.
The centrepiece of the 2030 Agenda is the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals reflect economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
The goals cover policy areas such as:
- ending poverty
- economic development
- protection of the environment
- access to health and education services
- gender equality
- peaceful societies
- human rights
Each goal includes a number of sub-targets, with 169 targets in total.
The 2030 Agenda builds on the Millennium Development Goals, the 2020 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development and UN Financing for Development process. The agreement of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change marked 2015 as a landmark year in international cooperation towards achieving sustainable development.
Ireland was at the center of the intergovernmental negotiations for the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Goals.
Our then Ambassador to the UN, Mr. David Donoghue, and the Kenyan Ambassador Macharia Kamau were appointed co-facilitators of the final phase of intergovernmental negotiations.
Implementation Plan
The Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020 is in direct response to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and provides a whole-of-government approach to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The plan identifies four strategic priorities to guide implementation:
- awareness: raise public awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals
- participation: provide stakeholders opportunities to engage and contribute to follow-up and review processes, and further develop national implementation of the goals
- support: encourage and support efforts of communities and organisations to contribute towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, and foster public participation; and
- policy alignment: develop alignment of national policy with the Sustainable Development Goals and identify opportunities for policy coherence.
National Sustainable Development Goals Stakeholder Forum
To achieve sustainable development will require action not only by government but also by individuals across society. To this end, The Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020 committed the government to establish a national Sustainable Development Goals Stakeholder Forum.
You can see presentations from all the forums to date here.
Publications
July 2019 National Sustainable Development Goal Stakeholder Forum
23 July 2019; Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Publication;
National Sustainable Development Goals Stakeholder Forum
22 July 2019; Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Collection;
January 2019 National Sustainable Development Goals Stakeholder Forum
22 July 2019; Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Publication;