Ireland's UN SDGs - Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production 2021

Multilateral Environmental Agreements 

Basel Convention

1. Designation of the focal point and one or more competent authorities
2. Submission of the annual national reports

Rotterdam Convention

1. Designation of the designated national authority(-ies) and official contact points
2. Submission of the import responses

Stockholm Convention

1. Designation of the Stockholm Convention official contact points and national focal points
2. Submission of the national implementation plans
3. Submission of the revised national implementation plan addressing amendments
4. Submission of the national reports

Montreal Protocol

1. Compliance with annual reporting requirements for production and consumption of controlled substances under Article 7 of the Montreal Protocol
2. Submission of information on licensing systems under (Article 4B of) the Montreal Protocol
3. For each party, a percentage value is assigned to indicate how much of the required information has been submitted

Minamata Convention

1. Designation of a national focal point for exchange of information under Article 17 of the Convention
2. Submission of national reports as required under Article 21 of the Minamata Convention

Concepts

Parties: Countries that have ratified, accepted, approved or accessed a convention.

Information: Parties to the Basel Convention have an obligation to present an annual national report as provided for by Article 13, paragraph 3 in order to enable monitoring of the implementation of the Basel Convention by its Parties. 

The reports are to contain, inter alia, information regarding transboundary movements of hazardous wastes or other wastes in which parties have been involved, including the amount of hazardous wastes and other wastes exported, their category, characteristics, destination, any transit country and disposal method as stated on the response to notification, the amount of hazardous wastes and other wastes imported their category, characteristics, origin, and disposal methods; information on accidents occurring during the transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous wastes and other wastes and on the measures undertaken to deal with them; information on disposal options operated within the area of their national jurisdiction; and other information as per reporting format.

Import responses under the Rotterdam Convention are the decisions provided by parties indicating whether or not they will consent to import the chemicals listed in Annex III of the Convention and subject to the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure.  Article 10 of the Rotterdam Convention sets out the obligations of parties with respect to the future import of chemicals listed in Annex III.

Under the Stockholm Convention a party has an obligation to report on the measures it has taken to implement the provisions of the Convention and on the effectiveness of such measures in meeting the objectives of the Convention. 

The national reports include statistical data on the total quantities of production, import and export of each of the chemicals listed in Annex A and Annex B or a reasonable estimate of such data; and to the extent practicable, a list of the States from which it has imported each such substance and the States to which it has exported each such substance.

A National Implementation Plan under the Stockholm Convention is a plan explaining how a party is going to implement the obligations under the Convention and make efforts to put such a plan into operation (Article 7).  Changes in the obligations arising from amendments to the Convention or its annexes, for example when a new chemical is listed into the annexes of the Convention, a party will review and update its implementation plan, and transmit the updated plan to the Conference of the parties within two years of the entry into force of the amendment for it, consistent with paragraph 1 (b) of the Convention (according to paragraph 7 of the annex to decision SC-1/12).

The Minamata Convention requires, under its article 17, paragraph 4, that each party designates a National Focal Point for the exchange of information under it, including with regard to the consent of importing Parties under Article 3.

Pursuant to Article 21 of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, each party to the Convention shall report to the Conference of the parties on the measures it has taken to implement the provisions of the Convention, on the effectiveness of such measures and on possible challenges in meeting the objectives of the Convention.

In decision MC-1/8 on the Timing and format of reporting by the parties, the Conference of the parties at its first meeting (2017) agreed on the full format of reporting and decided that each party shall report every four years using the full format and report every two years on four questions marked by an asterisk in the full format.  The Conference of the parties further decided on the following timing with regards to the short and full reporting: 31 December 2019 as the deadline for first biennial short report; 31 December 2021 as the deadline for first full report.

The Montreal Protocol requires, under its Article 7, that each party provides to the Secretariat for each controlled substance statistical data on its annual production, amounts used for feedstocks, amounts destroyed by technologies approved by the parties, imports from and exports to parties and non-parties respectively and amount of the controlled substance listed in Annex E used for quarantine and preshipment applications, for the year during which provisions concerning those substances entered into force for that party and for each year thereafter.  Each party shall also provide to the Secretariat statistical data on its annual emissions of HFC-23 per facility.  The calculation of control levels is provided in Article 3 of the Protocol.  This reporting enables monitoring of the implementation of the Protocol, and compliance with the control measures under the protocol.

Additionally, under Article 4B, each party is required to establish and implement a system for licensing the import and export of new, used, recycled and reclaimed controlled substances.  Each party is required, within three months of the date of introducing its licensing system, to report to the Secretariat on the establishment and operation of that system.

Unit of Measure

For the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions the units of measurements are the transmission of information, such as the number of country contacts designated, number of national reports, national implementation plans and import responses.  For each party, a percentage value is assigned to indicate how much of the required information has been submitted.

For the Minamata Convention the units of measurement are the number of designated national focal points and the number of national reports received.  For each party, a percentage value is assigned to indicate how much of the required information has been submitted.

For the Montreal Protocol the units of measurement are the number of parties that comply with their reporting obligations with regard to production and consumption of controlled substances (Article 7) and submission of information on licensing systems (Article 4B). 

SDG 12.4.2 (a) Hazardous waste generated per capita; and (b) proportion of hazardous waste treated, by type of treatment is published by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in their National Waste Statistics Report 2019.

Sustainability

SDG 12.5.1 National recycling rate, tonnes of material recycled is published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

SDG 12.6.1 Number of companies publishing sustainability reports currently has no national source published.

SDG 12.7.1 Degree of sustainable public procurement policies and action plan implementation currently has no national source published.

SDG 12.8.1 Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment - information is provided on the UN SDG website.

SDG 12.a.1 Installed renewable energy-generating capacity in developing countries (in watts per capita) is reported by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

SDG 12.b.1 Implementation of standard accounting tools to monitor the economic and environmental aspects of tourism sustainability is published by the CSO, Tourism and Travel Annual Series and Household Travel Survey.

SDG 12.c.1 Amount of fossil-fuel subsidies (production and consumption) per unit of GDP is published by the CSO, Environment and Climate division.

Additional Information

Ireland's Population Distribution

For reference the population per county is based on the Census of Population 2016 data as follows:

Eight Regional Authorities (NUTS 3)

Border – Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo

Midland – Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath

West – Galway, Mayo, Roscommon

Dublin – Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, South Dublin

Mid-East – Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wicklow

Mid-West – Clare, Limerick, Tipperary

South East – Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford

South West – Cork, Kerry

Three Regions (NUTS 2)

Northern & Western - Border and West regions
Southern - Mid-West, South East and South West regions
Eastern & Midland - Dublin, Mid-East and Midland regions

Acronyms
DAFM	Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
DCEDIY	Department of Children Equality Disability Integration and Youth
DECC	Department of Environment, Climate and Communications
DEFENCE	Department of Defence
DE	Department of Education
DSP	Department of Social Protection
DETE	Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
DFIN	Department of Finance
DFA	Department of Foreign Affairs
DFHERIS	Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
DoH	Department of Health
DHLGH	Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
DJ	Department of Justice
OPW	Office of Public Works
DPER	Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
REVENUE	Department of Revenue Commissioners
DRCD	Department of Rural and Community Development
DTCAGSM	Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
DT	Department of Transport

 

Tier Classification for Global UN SDG Indicators

All indicators data are classified by the IAEG-SDGs into three tiers based on their level of methodological development and the availability of data at the global level.

Tier Classification Criteria/Definitions:
Tier 1: Indicator is conceptually clear, has an internationally established methodology and standards are available, and data are regularly produced by countries for at least 50 per cent of countries and of the population in every region where the indicator is relevant.
Tier 2: Indicator is conceptually clear, has an internationally established methodology and standards are available, but data are not regularly produced by countries.
Tier 3: No internationally established methodology or standards are yet available for the indicator, but methodology/standards are being (or will be) developed or tested.