Eight years ago, hugs and tears of joy were shared between the delegates from the countries of the world gathered at the UN headquarters in New York. They had succeeded in agreeing to adopt 17 major goals for world development. If the sustainability goals are met, there will be an end to poverty and hunger. All children must go to school, we must all live in safe, peaceful, green and sustainable societies. No one should be left out. The climate must be saved and nature must be protected. There must be equality between the sexes, and we must have overcome organized crime and human trafficking. And these are just some of the 169 sub-goals that the world’s countries voted for in 2015. The vision is extremely ambitious. The Sustainable Development Goals have been compared to another moon landing – because it is something difficult to achieve, requiring a lot of money, planning and political will to implement. Wrong course to be corrected But it has been a long time since the calendar showed 2015. We are now more than halfway to the deadline for the sustainability goals, which are to be reached in 2030. How have things really gone since the goals were adopted? Are we well on our way to the moon landing of our time? Unfortunately, the answer is that we are on the wrong course. This is shown by a large official UN report, the Global Sustainable Development Report 2023, where a group of experts assesses the status. The report shows that development has slowed in recent years. In total, it is only 15 percent of the many sub-goals that we can expect to meet – if we continue development at the same speed and direction as we are doing now. – Many of the sub-goals are not just standing still – they have experienced decline. Instead of leaving no people out, we now risk leaving out the sustainability goals, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at a new summit in New York in September. Here the world’s leaders gathered to discuss what they can do to get development going again. The report mentions several reasons why we are behind. Among other things, it has hit the world’s poorest hard, that most countries decided to shut down as a reaction to the corona epidemic. Together with inflation, war and natural disasters, it has removed several years of progress in reducing poverty. But that is far from the whole explanation, because even before the corona pandemic it was too slow to achieve the sustainability goals, writes the report. Also some progress to celebrate But the report also shows that some progress has been made since 2015. There are a number of sub-goals that are still on the right course and on track to be met by 2030. They are mostly about industrialisation, employment and access to mobile phones and the internet. Things that are directly related to economic development. The sustainability goals’ sub-goal of far more qualified birth attendants is also on track to be reached by the deadline. And then there is a long series of sub-goals where “reasonable” progress is being made, but where there is a need for acceleration. Among other things, it deals with the goals of getting all children to school, improving hygiene, giving everyone access to electricity, stopping child marriage, getting more women into politics and creating better social safety nets. The price will be astronomical Despite the adversity, the UN has not given up on the sustainability goals. Among other things, the UN Secretary-General calls on all countries to help developing countries reduce their debt, and each country should also set clear targets for how much they concretely want to reduce poverty by 2030. The price for achieving the sustainability goals will be astronomical. It will require “a big jump” in funding to reverse the trend. But it is still possible if the countries make an extra big effort, according to the report. The solutions are well known: It involves large investments in everything from education, green energy, transport, better agriculture, nature protection and much more. As part of the summit, the world’s countries declared that they will increase funding for international development by at least $500 billion a year. It is a staggering amount, but it is also part of the money to be given as a loan with a particularly low interest rate. Although the sustainability goals and the moon landing have a lot in common, there is also a big difference: With the moon landing, it was either or. Either the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon and came home alive, or they didn’t. With the sustainability goals, the goals can be met to a greater or lesser extent. Therefore, the sustainability goals are unlikely to be an unequivocal success. But the world still has the opportunity to get on a much better course.
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War, crises and corona have given the sustainability goals strong headwinds. But the world’s biggest plan is far from cancelled
