Call for organisations and groups to be Sustainable Development Goal Champions for 2025-2026
- Published on: 18 June 2025
- Last updated on: 19 June 2025
The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is now seeking Expressions of Interest for participants in the 2025-26 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Champions Programme.
As part of the 2025-2026 programme, a number of organisations and groups from across the country will be appointed 'SDG Champions' to help raise awareness of the importance of the SDGs. As Champions, they will show through their own actions that everyone in society can make a contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The SDGs (also known as the Global Goals), adopted in 2015 by the United Nations, are a universal call to action to achieve a fairer, healthier, more prosperous and peaceful world, and a sustainable future for all. There are 17 SDGs, covering areas such as poverty, biodiversity, shelter, education, health, equality and clean energy. The SDGs are all connected, and actions to achieve one will affect outcomes in others. That is where partnerships also play a vital role, helping to bring together all stakeholders, to collectively achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Working together to achieve the SDGs will also deliver on the vision of the Pact for the Future, agreed at the Summit of the Future in September 2024 – in particular, to help strengthen partnerships to deliver on our commitments and face new and emerging challenges.
Already, 54 organisations and groups, large and small, have become SDG Champions, including, for example, ALDI Ireland, Junk Kouture, Change Clothes, Football Cooperative, UCD, Kinvara Tidy Towns, and Mayo County Council. Last year, over 90 organisations applied to take part in the programme, from which 20 were chosen as Champions, demonstrating the commitment of Irish society to help ensure that we achieve the SDGs.
Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O'Brien said:
"I am delighted to launch the Call for Expressions of Interest for the SDG Champions Programme once again. Having now passed the midpoint of Agenda 2030, and ten years on from the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, we must accelerate action towards achieving the SDGs.
We face extraordinary challenges including climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, as well as the effects of war and the COVID pandemic. Along with governments, civil society organisations, businesses and communities all have a vital role to play in ensuring that the Goals are achieved, while leaving no-one behind. The SDG Champions Programme allows a diverse range of organisations in Ireland to showcase the work they are doing to achieve the SDGs and to share their experiences and best practice, and demonstrate what can be achieved locally and nationally."
Applications are sought from all organisations and groups who would like to act as an advocate for the SDGs and a good practice example of how to promote and achieve the goals. Applications will be accepted in written or video format up to 5pm on Wednesday, 30 July.
For further information on the SDG Champions Programme, and how to apply, please go to the department's website.
ENDS
Notes to the Editor
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
On 25 September 2015, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted at the United Nations. Ireland co-led the 2030 agenda negotiations alongside Kenya. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to "end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity", are an integral part of the 2030 Agenda.
The SDGs cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth; social inclusion; and protection of the environment. They are universal in application and aim to address poverty, hunger and food systems, health, education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, energy, economic growth, decent jobs, industrialisation, inequalities, cities and human settlements, sustainable consumption and production, climate change, oceans, ecosystems and peace and justice.
The 2030 Agenda is voluntary and not legally binding, but every country has agreed to implement the SDGs and every country is expected to develop a national framework setting out how they will be achieved.
Ireland's approach to implementation of the SDGs
Ireland has adopted a whole-of-government approach to SDG implementation, with overall political oversight provided through the cabinet. The Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, has responsibility for promoting the SDGs, and for overseeing their coherent implementation across government. The National Implementation Plan 2022-2024 sets out Ireland's SDG governance and implementation strategy for 2022-2024 and is the second in a series of consecutive implementation plans, each building on the previous iteration, to work towards achieving the SDGs. The plans set out the overarching national governance, coordination and monitoring framework for the SDGs. The detailed policy approaches to progress individual SDGs and targets are addressed in relevant national policies as set out in the SDG Policy Map. Development of the third Implementation Plan has commenced.
SDG Champions Programme
Established in 2019, the SDG Champions Programme was developed to raise public awareness of the SDGs and to demonstrate, through the examples provided by the SDG Champions, that everyone in society can make a contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The role of an SDG Champion is to act as an advocate and promoter of the SDGs and as a good practice example of how an organisation can contribute to the SDGs and integrate the SDGs into their work and activities.
Strategic Objective 3 of Ireland's Second SDG National Implementation Plan 2022-2024 (NIP) is 'Greater partnerships for the Goals'; the SDG Champions Programme is a key mechanism towards achieving this. Action 35 and related measures of the NIP relate to the SDG Champions Programme and its relaunch last year.
The key message of the Champions Programme is that the SDGs are for everyone in society and that everyone can make a contribution to their success.
Summit of the Future
At the Summit of the Future in September 2024, world leaders adopted a Pact for the Future that includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations. This Pact is the result of a years-long process to adapt international cooperation to today's challenges and those of the future, and demonstrates countries commitment to multilateralism that can deliver on its promises, is more representative of today’s world and draws on the engagement and expertise of governments, civil society and other key partners. The Pact aims to ensure that in the face of a changing world international institutions can deliver on commitments on a range of issues, with strong attention to human rights, gender and sustainable development.
A key action in the Pact for the Future is Action 55: We will strengthen our partnerships to deliver on existing commitments and address new and emerging challenges.