Abstract
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.
Highlights
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) AND THEIR CONTEXTSustainable development has become the North Star for the international community
Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature, and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability
While introduced only 30 years ago to the UN through the “Brundtland commission” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), it has moved center stage: it is referenced on the UN’s home page,1 and it has its dedicated website.2. This extraordinarily positive public endorsement reflects the world’s official commitment to everyone’s wellbeing, while recognizing the need to operate within the planet’s ecological limits. This is the essence of any serious sustainable development definition, including WWF, IUCN, and UNEP’s “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems” [WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), 1991] or the Brundtland commission’s “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)
Summary
Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth
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