Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes sustainable global prosperity by encouraging the coordination of social, economic, and environmental policies and good governance reforms. Cities are expected to play an essential role in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Local programs are to be implemented by multi-actor governance systems (including government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations) that operate across multiple policy domains and provide extensive opportunities for stakeholder participation. Local program finance may require a combination of public, private, and philanthropic resources. We analyze the prospects for local implementation of the 2030 Agenda in large U.S. cities by examining local capacity to plan and carry out cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives. We review sustainability planning in the cities that participated in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network planning demonstration. We analyze an inventory of urban revitalization initiatives to assess local capacity to carry out collaborations. We show that local capacity is associated with having an active local environmental agenda and making progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. However, local capacity appears to be concentrated in larger cities. Although the demands on local governance are daunting, our examination of local capacity to plan and execute cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives in large U.S. cities creates guarded optimism.
Highlights
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a United Nations (UN) initiative to promote sustainable global prosperity by encouraging the coordination of social, economic, and environmental policies and good governance reforms
The city of San José is located within the San José–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara, California, metropolitan region, which the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) identified as the leading urban area in the U.S for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [28]
Is local experience with collaborative revitalization initiatives related to the likelihood that cities undertake local initiatives in the environmental policy domain? We gathered information on local policy actions in the cities selected for the inventory over the past decade in five areas related to environmental policy and examined how they aligned with local collaborative urban revitalization initiatives
Summary
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a United Nations (UN) initiative to promote sustainable global prosperity by encouraging the coordination of social, economic, and environmental policies and good governance reforms. The agenda identifies seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Though there are both synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs, the nature of the connections and the balance of trade-offs are likely to vary between and within nations [1,2]. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has noted, “attainment of at least 105 of the 169 SDG targets included in the global indicator framework will require the full engagement and participation of regions and cities to deliver the intended outcomes” [7]. The U.S participated in the development of the SDGs and adopted the goals along with other UN member states in 2015, follow-through at the national level has been limited In part this reflects the Trump Administration’s hostility toward climate change mitigation, sustainable development, and institutions that support international cooperation [8]. Are U.S cities prepared to meet these daunting challenges? Our analysis of local capacity to plan and carry out cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives suggests there are reasons for guarded optimism
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
