Brussels Briefing: A weekly round-up of the most interesting news from Europe

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

Developed states fail to show example

Ireland is among the best and the worst and so ends up in the middle when it comes to sustainable development.

Developed countries will pledge to achieve sustainable development goals later this month, but it won’t come as a surprise that Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland are the only ones likely to achieve them.

Ireland languishes at 20th of the 34 OECD states studied by Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung. It is one of the best for quality of life in cities, clean air, freshwater usage, and efficient energy use.

However, it falls to 29th for renewable energy sources, last for land designated as protected, and close to last for the amount of material consumed by households.

The study concludes that the developed states are not good models for emerging countries on use of resources, social inequality, and climate change.