European Sustainability Week

Rendel is marking European Sustainability Week and sharing updates released by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The 17 goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, inequality, protect the planet and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The SDGs also provide a robust follow-up and review mechanism for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Looking at the data it is clear that, although there is some progress, there is a lot more that needs to be done if we want to achieve the targets. The following goals show the least or no progress compared to 2022:

 G1 - No poverty: slow and uneven progress on poverty reduction may leave hundreds of millions in extreme poverty by 2030. Coverage and expenditures on social protection programmes remain low.

G4 - Quality of education: small progress on improving primary school reading levels. Basic school infrastructure varies widely across regions and is far from universal.

G6 - Clean water and sanitation: enhancing water management and transboundary cooperation is critical for bolstering resilience to crises.

G8 - Decent work and economic growth: global economic recovery continues on a slow trajectory. Challenging economic conditions are pushing more workers into informal employment.

G13 - Climate action: urgent global greenhouse gas emission reductions are needed to avert 1.5°C tipping point. Record-setting rising sea levels are a severe threat to hundreds of millions of people.

G16 - Peace, justice and strong institutions: Ukraine and sub-Sharan Africa conflicts accounted for an unprecedented increase in civilian deaths in conflicts – the first since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda.

This doesn’t mean that there is no progress, there are some positives too. One of the biggest achievements is the increment of clear coverage data from all countries. The global SDG database has expanded significantly in the past 7 years. More data means a better monitoring of the progress against all SDGs indicators. This is a good starting point but there is a lot left to do.

For further information, please read the Goals Report 2023 and look at the five key areas for urgent action proposed by the UN.