The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
17 Sustainable Development Goals
- No Poverty.
“End poverty in all its forms everywhere.”
Eradicate every form of extreme poverty including the lack of food, clean drinking water, and sanitation. Achieving this goal includes finding solutions to new threats caused by climate change and conflict. - Zero hunger.
“End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.”
Ending hunger and improving access to food; ending all forms of malnutrition; agricultural productivity; sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices; and genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals; investments, research and technology. - Good health and well-being.
“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”
Important indicators here are life expectancy as well as child and maternal mortality. Further indicators are for example deaths from road traffic injuries, prevalence of current tobacco use, and suicide mortality rate. - Quality education.
“Ensure inclusive. and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Improving attendance rates at primary schools, completion rates of primary school education, participation in tertiary education, and so forth. - Gender equality.
“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
Having suitable legal frameworks and the representation by women in national parliament or in local deliberative bodies. - Clean water and sanitation.
“Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”
Improve the percentages of the population that uses safely managed drinking water and has access to safely managed sanitation. - Affordable and clean energy.
“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
Improve the percentage of population with access to electricity; look at the renewable energy share and energy efficiency. - Decent work and economic growth.
“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”
Improve economic growth in least developed countries and the rate of real GDP per capita. Decrease the rates of youth unemployment and occupational injuries. - Industry, innovation and infrastructure.
“Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.”
Improving the proportion of people who are employed in manufacturing activities, are living in areas covered by a mobile network, or who have access to the internet. An indicator that is connected to climate change is CO2 emissions per unit of value added. - Reduced inequalities.
“Reduce inequality within and among countries.”
Improve income disparities, aspects of gender and disability, as well as policies for migration and mobility of people. - Sustainable cities and communities.
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”
Reduce the number of people living in urban slums and increase the proportion of the urban population who has convenient access to public transport. - Responsible consumption and production.
“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.”
Increase the number of national policy instruments to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns; increase in domestic recycling and a reduced reliance on the global plastic waste trade are other actions that might help meet the goal. - Climate action.
“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy.”
Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity towards climate change-related disasters; integrate climate change measures into policies and planning; build knowledge and capacity; implementing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and promote mechanisms to raise capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management. - Life below water.
“Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.”
Reduce marine pollution; protect and restore ecosystems; reduce ocean acidification; support sustainable fishing; conserve coastal and marine areas; end subsidies contributing to overfishing; increase the economic benefits from sustainable use of marine resource; increase scientific knowledge, research and technology for ocean health; support small scale fishers; implement and enforce international sea law. - Life on land.
“Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”
Conserve and restore terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems; end deforestation and restore degraded forests; end desertification and restore degraded land; ensure conservation of mountain ecosystems, protect biodiversity and natural habitats; protect access to genetic resources and fair sharing of the benefits; eliminate poaching and trafficking of protected species; prevent invasive alien species on land and in water ecosystems; and integrate ecosystem and biodiversity in governmental planning; Increase financial resources to conserve and sustainably use ecosystem and biodiversity; finance and incentivize sustainable forest management; combat global poaching and trafficking. - Peace, justice, and strong institutions.
“Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
Reduce violence; protect children from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence; promote the rule of law and ensure equal access to justice; combat organized crime and illicit financial and arms flows, substantially reduce corruption and bribery; develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions; ensure responsive, inclusive and representative decision-making; strengthen the participation in global governance; provide universal legal identity; ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms; strengthen national institutions to prevent violence and combat crime and terrorism; promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies. - Partnerships for the goals.
“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.”
Improved equitable trade, as well as coordinated investment initiatives to promote sustainable development across borders. strengthen and streamline cooperation between nation-states, both developed and developing, using the SDGs as a shared framework and a shared vision for defining that collaborative way forward. It seeks to promote international trade and an equitable trading system.
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The 17 Goals. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Sustainable Development Goals. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals