Sustainable Development Goals Targets Research Articles

Features of Sustainability-Oriented Innovations: A Content Analysis of Patent Abstracts

This article aims to identify the features of sustainability-oriented innovation starting from the content analysis of patent abstracts. An automatic tool was developed capable of finding the keywords, or groups of keywords, related to the 169 targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Once the patents deemed useful for pursuing SDGs were selected through the tool, they were analyzed to obtain information on their features in terms of breadth, scope, novelty, openness, prior art and scientific base. Among the most significant results, it is found that a larger number of applicants, suggesting the adoption of “open innovation” strategies, contributes to sustainability orientation. Moreover, patent originality contributes to the probability of pursuing sustainable objectives, especially related to environmental issues. On the contrary, claims are inversely correlated with the attitude to pursue SDGs, i.e., the larger number of areas in which a patent claims to intervene, the lower the probability that such innovation is sustainable. The results obtained by adopting a quantitative approach are in line with suggestions proposed by the literature and, so far, only supported by logical arguments or case studies. The potential of the tool developed, applied to the field of innovation and sustainability, is demonstrated as significant.

Upcycled foods: A nudge toward nutrition.

One of the aims of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round. An obvious synergy exists between the second SDG "Zero Hunger" and SDG target 12.3 which focuses on halving food waste and reducing food losses. In addition to helping improve global food security, reducing food waste provides financial and environmental benefits. Upcycling food is a technical solution for food waste reduction that retains the nutritional and financial value of food by-products. However, many of the upcycled foods produced are discretionary foods such as biscuits, crackers, and other snack food that are not part of a healthy dietary pattern, and should only be eaten sometimes in small amounts. Given the importance of ensuring a sustainable healthy diet, this paper discusses opportunities for upcycled food manufacturers to produce more nutritious products.

Disentangling the SDGs agenda in the GCC region: Priority targets and core areas for environmental action

The agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a key international outcome for guiding development efforts of nation states. However, SDG targets cover vast areas of action, and they are difficult to break down and monitor for countries with different developmental situations and needs. Often, global rankings of countries’ compliance with the SDG agenda are plagued with false signals and methodological limitations. This paper presents a much-needed prioritization of the SDG targets for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. It maps SDG targets and outlines priorities and key areas for environmental action. Sustainability in resource use, consumption and production constitutes a primary area for investments. Education and awareness represent cross-cutting priorities and low-hanging fruit for action. Tackling climate change and emerging supply risks and the management of ecosystems represent an action area in which GCC governments can intensify their interventions. As a supporting policy, regional environmental cooperation is important for enhanced commitments and tackling transboundary aspects of the SDG agenda. The analysis of the SDG agenda in the GCC regions reiterates the importance of countries engaging with global sustainability framings in order work out their own interpretations in congruence with national development realities. Such an SDG regional mapping exercise also assists national-level planners or regional bodies working on development issues in shaping the Gulf region’s engagement with the global sustainability agenda and tracking progress on key SDG priorities.

ROUTINE IMMUNIZATION: ITS STATUS AND CHALLENGES IN CENTRAL INDIA

The picture of routine immunization (RI) in India has changed drastically in the last two decades, with introduction of new vaccines, intensification of programme to reach remote / inaccessible rural and tribal areas and involvement of multiple stakeholders in a concerted effort to increase immunization coverage in the country. All this effort is towards reducing the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to 25 per 1000 live births by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goal target, and to achieve this, the programme is reaching about 30 million pregnant women and a birth cohort of 26 million, through 9 million immunization sessions annually

Measuring indicators of Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.2.1: factor structure of a direct assessment tool in four Asian countries

ABSTRACT Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.2.1 is monitored by determining the proportion of children aged 24 to 59 months who are developmentally on track in the domains of health, learning, and psychosocial well-being. UNICEF has developed a caregiver report measure, the Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030), to measure progress towards this target. This paper examines whether a newly developed tool, the Early Childhood Development Assessment Scale-Direct Assessment (ECDAS-DA) can add value to the measurement of Target Indicator 4.2.1 by complementing UNICEF’s ECDI2030, and explores the psychometric properties of the ECDAS-DA. A total of 956 children (476 girls) aged 3 to 5 years from Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar were administered the ECDAS-DA in individual sessions. Caregivers provided responses to a survey based on UNICEF’s ECDI2030. Confirmatory Factor Analyses indicated that learning, health, and psychosocial well-being domains of the ECDAS-DA were three component parts of one underlying construct of early child development. Significant correlations between the ECDAS-DA and the caregiver-reported ECDI2030 survey were found in the learning and health domains but findings were mixed for the psychosocial well-being domain. Multiple measures of early development could be important in measuring SDG Target 4.2.1 and the ECDAS-DA has the potential to complement UNICEF’s ECDI2030.

Hopes and challenges: Globalization for sustainable development of communication technology and innovation dimensions in Batu City

“Realizing the future we want for all” is a report on the PPB conference as part of the post-2015 development agenda or known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This means that the SDGs targets concerning human, welfare, peace and partnership as well as earth aspects we must make it real. Then the question is what about Indonesia? This development will affect, who? Inayatullah is a development expert, whose concept is popular as sustainable development that is environmentally friendly and insightful. The world and Indonesia are currently in the era of industry 4.0 all forms of activity are relating to new media, development communication and communication technology; this is where they can meet. This research is a descriptive analysis using Globalization theory, which has a constructivist worldview, highlighting sustainable development, human-centered, has a long-term vision; it involves the role of the Government and the participation of the people of Batu City, East Java in the digital era. The author in collecting data using observation and in-depth interviews. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews toward agents of change ranging from managers of economic resources engaged in agriculture with the mandate of millennial farmers(millennial farmers ambassadors), professional non-government agricultural extension workers, Community Information Group/Kelompok Informasi Masyarakat (KIM) to the religious institutions Islamic boarding schools in Batu City. The Public Communication Information/Informasi Komunikasi Publik (IKP) Batu City Government as a development agency. The results obtained from this study are human-centered development, believing that every member of the community is able to contribute to the progress of the nation as human nature who has the ability to think, be passionate and be creative. Technology, as the result of human innovation, is capable of determining the development of civilization in society. The role of the Government in encouraging the acceleration of development that is convergent, complementary, and coherent in planning policies to address inequality. The conclusion of this study is the government's efforts to re-construct development in order to mobilize the noble ideals of development and the spirit of mutual cooperation from the community as agents of change.

Impact of trade liberalization and renewable energy on load capacity factor: Evidence from novel dual adjustment approach

Several nations, including Mexico, are encountering problems with accomplishing the targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). This study addresses how to develop SDG agenda for Mexico, which may also be applied to other emerging markets with comparable profiles. Therefore, this study utilizes a newly developed load capacity factor (LCF, a detailed environmental evaluation tool) that combines biocapacity (supply side) and ecological foot (demand side) to examine the effect of renewable energy consumption and trade openness on LCF while controlling for nonrenewable energy consumption and economic growth in the case of Mexico during 1970–2017. Using the dual adjustment approach, we find evidence of long-run cointegration nexus among the series. In addition, trade openness affects LCF positively, whereas renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and nonrenewable energy consumption impact LCF negatively. Furthermore, results of the frequency domain causality show that all the variables can predict LCF in the long-term. Based on these results, Mexico should focus on promoting public understanding of green energy and environmental preservation measures and participate in the production of nonenergy-consuming and ecologically friendly products while compelling polluting enterprises to migrate to countries with less stringent environmental restrictions.

Halving food waste generation by 2030: The challenges and strategies of monitoring UN sustainable development goal target 12.3

This paper examines the challenges in monitoring target 12.3 of United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12) under the SDG 2030 17 significant goals. SDG 12 focuses on ensuring production and consumption patterns are sustainable. Target 12.3 aims to reduce food waste by 50% at the retail and consumption stage and food loss at the production stage, including post-harvest losses, by 2030. With the help of SDG reports, an extensive literature review and expert opinions, 14 challenges were selected and hybrid multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) was applied. The first phase obtained the inter-relationship between the challenges using interpretive structural modeling (ISM). The second phase included quantification and ranking of the challenges using fuzzy AHP methodology. Probable strategies to overcome these challenges in emerging economies are discussed and ranked using the VIKOR methodology in the third phase, as no single approach can combat all the obstacles. This is the first to examine the challenges and possibilities of monitoring UN SDG target 12.3 in emerging economies like India. The results indicate that data availability, education in sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns, financing of SDG targets and data use are the main obstacles to monitoring and achieving target 12.3.

Synergies and trade‐offs across sustainable development goals: A novel method incorporating indirect interactions analysis

AbstractThe sustainable development goals (SDGs) are presented as significantly interacted. Yet most studies only investigated the direct interactions of SDG targets, and indirect interactions, that is, the interlinkages transmitted through one or more mediums, should also be considered to obtain more accurate interaction estimation and more scientific policy decisions. We first made a methodological contribution by proposing a plus‐minus decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory model, which can consider not only the direct synergies and trade‐offs but the indirect ones. Then, based on this proposed method, we navigated the complicated network across the SDGs considering both direct and indirect interactions, find out the key interactive ones with a visually directed graph, obtain the weights of each SDG, and define the best governance structures to capitalize on synergies and minimize trade‐offs. Results show that, when incorporating indirect interactions, the share of synergy effect of SDGs dominates the total influence, taking up to 98.33%, suggesting that the achievement of the 2030 Agenda can be facilitated through interactions. Although all SDGs should be equally addressed by 2030 suggested by the United Nations, equal importance across 17 SDGs does not mean we have to make the same efforts in achieving each SDG, and SDG 4 and SDG 13 are the top priority to tap into these interaction potentials. Our interdisciplinary analysis across economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection provides a science‐driven reference for all UN member states to facilitate achieving the SDGs by maximizing the synergies and minimizing the trade‐offs.

How the Air Clean Plan and carbon mitigation measures co-benefited China in PM2.5 reduction and health from 2014 to 2020.

China implemented a stringent Air Clean Plan (ACP) since 2013 to address environmental and health risks caused by ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). However, the policy effectiveness of ACP and co-benefits of carbon mitigation measures to environment and health are still largely unknown. Using satellite-based PM2.5 products produced in our previous study, concentration-response functions, and the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, we analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 exposure, and quantitatively estimated the policy benefits of ACP and carbon mitigation measures. We found the annual PM2.5 concentrations in China decreased by 33.65% (13.41μgm-3) from 2014 to 2020, accompanied by a decrease in PM2.5-attributable premature deaths of 0.23 million (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.22-0.27), indicating the huge benefits of China ACP for human health and environment. However, there were still 1.12 million (95% CI: 0.79-1.56) premature deaths caused by the exposure of PM2.5 in mainland China in 2020. Among all ACP measures, clean production (contributed 55.98% and 51.14% to decrease in PM2.5 and premature deaths attributable to PM2.5) and energy consumption control (contributed 32.58% and 29.54% to decrease in PM2.5 and premature deaths attributable to PM2.5) made the largest contribution during the past seven years. Nevertheless, the environmental and health benefits of ACP are not fully synergistic in different regions, and the effectiveness of ACP measures reduced from 2018 to 2020. The co-effects of CO2 and PM2.5 has become one of the major drivers for PM2.5 and premature deaths reduction since 2018, confirming the clear environment and health co-benefits of carbon mitigation measures. Our study suggests, with the saturation of clean production and source control, more targeted region-specific strategies and synergistic air pollution-carbon mitigation measures are critical to achieving the WHO's Air Quality Guideline target and the UN's Sustainable Development Goal Target in China.

Appraising Malaria Incidence with Spatial-Oriented Decision Support System in Parts of Zaria, Kaduna State-Nigeria

Prevalence of malaria in certain parts of the world without adequate planning and monitoring based on ill- informed decisions has wreaked havoc on the health system and economy of many developing nations. The purpose of this study is to create a functional Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) for malaria monitoring in parts of Zaria, Kaduna State. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) SDSS was created using ArcGIS 10.5 software for the 2019 Malaria data obtained from the Ministry of Health, Kaduna State Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Programme for collation and analysis across 13 political wards in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State. The results revealed that a total of 443,852 cases of malaria were reported across the 13 political wards of the study area. The reported cases had predominant occurrences at the Gyellesu ward, followed by the Kwarbai A ward. The spatial incidence was displayed via vector control maps, malaria burden maps, malaria prevalence in Zaria maps, and service area maps. The map of demography indicated a higher prevalence of malaria of 73.35% for the male gender compared to the female (26.65%). However, the independent t-test revealed no significant difference between males' and females' malaria prevalence. It was also revealed that the adult population had the highest malaria prevalence followed by children less than 5 years while pregnant women were the least infected. The study further indicated that 38.5% of the existing political wards recorded a shortfall of at least two (2) healthcare facilities. This study identified areas that required the establishment of health facilities to offset the existing shortfall. The SDSS was able to effectively monitor and appraise malaria incidence for proper surveillance and management that will be required for malaria prevention and elimination activities. The study recommends that policymakers invest in the deployment of an SDSS for better and robust planning, monitoring and execution of their malaria intervention programmes as this aligns with the sustainable development goal (SDG) target 3.

Non-communicable Disease-Related Sustainable Development Goals for 66 Belt and Road Initiative Countries.

Since 2015, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) has measured progress in achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) annually worldwide. Little is known about the status and attainment of indicators of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by 65 countries from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China in 2013. Data from GBDs were used to estimate 24 NCD-related SDG indicators in BRI countries from 1990 to 2017. Each indicator was scored from 0 to 100 to compare multiple indicators over the study period. The natural log of the annual change in each location and year and weighted annual rates of change were used to generate projections for 2030. National-level estimates were determined by socio-demographic index (SDI) quintiles in BRI countries with more than 1 million inhabitants. In 2017, the median overall score of NCD-related SDG index for the 66 BRI countries was 60 points, ranging from 29 points in Afghanistan to 84 points in Israel. More than 80% of countries achieved the SDG 2030 maternal mortality (MM) rate target in 2017, and the national skilled birth attendance rate was above 99% in more than 59% countries. However, none of the BRI countries achieved the goal for children's overweight, modern methods of contraception, and universal health coverage. It was predicted that 80.4% of NCD-related SDG targets would be achieved in these countries by 2030. The overall score of NCD-related SDG index were positively associated with SDI quintiles. For many indicators, the achieved progress in many countries is less than the annual rate necessary to meet SDG targets, indicating that substantial efforts need to be made in the coming years. Progress should be accelerated through collaborations between countries, implementation of NCD prevention and control strategies, and monitoring of inequalities in NCD-related SDGs within populations.

Comparative Advantage of Agricultural Trade in Countries along the Belt and Road and China and Its Dynamic Evolution Characteristics.

Trade is an important means to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Target 2.1 "Zero Hunger", and comparative advantage can be used to explain the causes and performance of trade. This study measures the static distribution of agricultural trade comparative advantage in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) and China by utilizing the Balassa revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index, and further calculates its dynamic change by utilizing the revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) index and the ordinary least squares correlation analysis. The results show that: (1) in the face of multiple unfavorable factors, the initial comparative advantage of most agricultural products at Harmonized System (HS) 2-digit level in countries along the B&R and China deteriorated, simultaneously, but the initial comparative disadvantage of most and some agricultural products at HS 2-digit level in countries along the B&R and China improved, respectively; (2) the present agricultural trade comparative advantage in most countries along the B&R was higher than China and had a larger extent of change, but the current product structure of their bilateral agricultural trade was in line with each other's comparative advantage, indirectly proving the validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem. Our research findings suggest that the agricultural trade comparative advantage in countries along the B&R and China need to be further utilized to improve agricultural trade performance and better play its important role in ensuring global, regional, and national food security.

Designing indicators and assessment tools for SDG Target 4.7: a critique of the current approach and a proposal for an ’Inside-Out’ strategy

ABSTRACT Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls on states to ensure, by 2030, that “all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development”. This paper argues that the wording of this target holds three inherent problems, which, together with a commitment to using existing datasets to measure progress towards the SDGs, are resulting in indicators and assessment tools that are not fit for purpose. In response, an alternative “Inside-Out” design strategy is proposed, which is grounded in inductive, intersubjective and values-based approaches for designing indicators and assessment. The approach is elaborated, along with the ways in which it addresses the inherent problems of Target 4.7, its potential challenges, practicalities and caveats. A case study is provided, exemplifying how the “Inside-Out” design is being applied to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) process being developed within the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) research and practice Network Plus.

Ambitiousness of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets: classification and implications for policy making

We analyse how ambitiously the underlying targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030 are set in terms of their semantic formulation and discuss the implications of this for policy making. Our analysis is based on classifying ambitiousness into three types: semantic, relative and absolute ambitiousness; in this paper, we mainly analyse semantic ambitiousness. We establish an evaluation framework that shows clear differences in semantic ambitiousness levels between SDG targets. Awareness of these differences is essential, as semantic ambitiousness also lays the foundation for evaluating other types of ambitiousness of the SDGs in international cross-country comparisons and national policy making processes. We also analyse how progress towards the targets has been reported in the Sustainable Development Report of the SDG Index and in the SDGs Progress Chart of the United Nations. Finally, we discuss possible reasons for the differences in the level of ambitiousness and provide recommendations for operationalising the targets. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of the variability of interpretations that can occur in the evaluation of different SDGs, and to improve the coherence between the goals in developing any future development goal frameworks beyond Agenda 2030.

Trend and future of infant mortality in Pakistan

In South Asia, Pakistan is contributing to the highest childhood mortality, including infant mortality. Child mortality has been declined globally, but Pakistan is still struggling and far behind the targets of Sustainable Development Goals. There are several reasons behind high childhood mortality, including socioeconomic determinants and a lack of effective implementation of health-related policies, particularly in primary health care settings. In the present study, we use the stochastic univariate models to uncover the trend of infant mortality by using more than half of the century data from 1960-2017.The secondary data on infant mortality rate from 1960 to 2017 was extracted from World Bank Dataset. Descriptive and time series analysis were applied by using the programming language R. The median infant mortality rate was 109 per 1,000 live births, whereas a higher mortality rate (189.8/1000) was reported in 1960. A gradual decline in infant mortality rates is experienced every year. The mortality rate went down below 100/1,000 live births from 1993 and remained 61.2/1,000 in 2017. ARIMA (1, 2, 2) is an adequate forecasting model selected by using the Auto ARIMA function with a root mean square error is 0.1006. Five years ahead forecast is obtained and yielded that infant mortality rate is expected to remain in 2018 [59.54, C.I (59.34 - 59.73)], 2019 [57.93, C.I (57.47 - 58.40)], 2020 [56.39, C.I (55.48 - 57.30)], 2021 [54.90, C.I (53.35 - 56.45)] and 2022 [53.47, C.I (51.05 - 55.88)]. The decreasing trend is expected in the infant mortality rate in Pakistan.

Closing the Infrastructure Gap for Decarbonization: The Case for an Integrated Mineral Supply Agreement.

Significant amounts of feedstock metals will be required to build the infrastructure for the green energy transition. It is currently estimated, however, that the world may be facing an "infrastructure gap" that could prevent us from meeting United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets. Prior investigations have focused on the extractive aspects of the mining industry to meet these targets and on looming bottlenecks and regional challenges in these upstream market segments. Scant attention has been paid to the downstream processing segments of the raw materials value chain, which also has a high degree of market concentration. Growing international tensions and geopolitical events have resulted in a shift toward "reshoring" and "near-shoring" of mining processing capabilities as regional powers attempt to make metal supply chains more secure. While increasing resilience, these shifts can also dilute the overall effectiveness of the global mining supply network and subsequently hamper the world's ability to close the green energy infrastructure gap. We argue that broadening the remit of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to include coordinating these mission-critical metal processing functions can mitigate these issues. The G20 is one potential forum for enabling an integrated mineral processing agreement under the auspices of IRENA.

Low-level viraemia: An emerging concern among people living with HIV in Uganda and across sub-Saharan Africa.

Attaining viral load (VL) suppression for over 95% of the people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy is a fundamental step in enabling Uganda and other sub-Saharan African countries to achieve global Sustainable Development Goal targets to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030. In line with the 2013 World Health Organization recommendations, several sub-Saharan African countries, including Uganda, use a threshold of 1000 HIV viral RNA copies/mL to determine HIV viral non-suppression. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care deem this threshold very high, and hence recommend using 200 copies/mL to determine viral non-suppression. Using 1000 copies/mL as a threshold ignores people living with HIV who have low-level viraemia (LLV; HIV VL of at least 50 copies/mL but less than 1000 copies/mL). Despite the 2021 World Health Organization recommendations of using intensive adherence counselling for people living with HIV with LLV, several sub-Saharan African countries have no interventions to address LLV. However, recent studies have associated LLV with increased risks of HIV drug resistance, virologic failure and transmission. The purpose of this narrative review is to provide insights on the emerging concern of LLV among people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. The review also provides guidance for Uganda and other sub-Saharan African countries to implement immediate appropriate interventions like intensive adherence counselling, reducing VL thresholds for non-suppression and conducting more research to manage LLV which threatens progress towards ending HIV by 2030.

Linking small-scale fisheries co-management to U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

Small-scale fisheries account for 90% of global fishers and 40% of the global catch. Effectively managing small-scale fisheries is, therefore, crucial to progressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Co-management and community-based fisheries management are widely considered the most appropriate forms of governance for many small-scale fisheries. We outlined relationships between small-scale fisheries co-management and attainment of the SDGs, including evidence for impacts and gaps in dominant logic. We identified 11 targets across five SDGs to which small-scale fisheries co-management (including community-based fisheries management) can contribute; the theory of change by which these contributions could be achieved; and the strength of evidence for progress toward SDG targets related to various co-management strategies. Our theory of change links the 11 SDG targets by qualifying that progress toward some targets is contingent on others being achieved first. We then reviewed 58 case studies of co-management impacts from the Pacific Islands--a region rich in local marine governance--to evaluate evidence of where, to what degree, and with how much certainty different co-management strategies conferred positive impacts to each SDG target. These strategies included access restrictions, permanent area closures, periodic closures, and gear and species restrictions. Although many studies provide evidence linking multiple co-management strategies to improvements in resource status (SDG 14.4), there was limited evidence of follow-on effects, such as improvements in catch (SDG 2.3, 2.4), livelihoods (SDG 1.2), consumption (SDG 2.1), and nutrition (SDG 2.2). Our findings suggest that leaps of logic and assumptions are prevalent in co-management planning and evaluation. Hence, when evaluating co-management impacts against the SDGs, consideration of ultimate goals is required, otherwise, there is a risk of shortfalls between aspirations and impact.

Seaports participation in enhancing the sustainable development goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda encourages and establishes initiatives that are important to society. In this sense, it is vital and valuable to adapt these initiatives on a sectoral basis. Therefore, this study aims to handle sustainability issues at ports within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) framework. Two targets were set. The first target is addressing the attention of European ports' sustainability disclosures to SDGs. The second target is to develop a comprehensive framework of port related sustainability initiatives to support the achievement of SDG targets. This paper is based upon a qualitative content analysis study. To consolidate the best practices, European Ports were selected as the research area. First, this study contributes to the extension of the UNSDG and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicator framework with port specific aspects. Therefore, it provides a comprehensive picture of port-related actions linked to each SDG goal. Secondly, it provides evidence of how European ports are aligned with SDGs. The results revealed that the port industry has the potential to contribute mainly to SDGs 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth; 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, 13 Climate Action, and 17 Partnership.