New report: Climate change threatens progress across SDGs
Launched on the opening day of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, a critical annual stocktaking event, the report, which is based on the latest available data, remains the cornerstone for measuring progress and identifying gaps in the implementation of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Four years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, the report notes progress in some areas, such as on extreme poverty reduction, widespread immunisation, decrease in child mortality rates and increase in people’s access to electricity, but warns that global response has not been ambitious enough, leaving the most vulnerable people and countries to suffer the most.
Among the key findings:
“It is abundantly clear that a much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and economic transformation needed to achieve our 2030 goals,” said United Nations secretary-general António Guterres.
The lack of progress is particularly apparent among environment-related goals such as climate action and biodiversity. Other major reports launched recently by the organisation have also warned of unprecedented threat to biodiversity and the urgent need to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“The natural environment is deteriorating at an alarming rate: sea levels are rising; ocean acidification is accelerating; the last four years have been the warmest on record; one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction, and land degradation continues unchecked,” the secretary-general added.
The impacts of environmental deterioration are taking a toll on people’s lives. Extreme weather conditions, more frequent and severe natural disasters and the collapse of ecosystems are causing increased food insecurity and are ill worsening people’s safety and health, forcing many communities to suffer from poverty, displacement and widening inequalities.
International cooperation and multilateral action
The clock for taking decisive actions on climate change is ticking, cautions the UN under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin, stressing the importance of strengthening international cooperation and multilateral action to confront the monumental global challenges.
“The challenges highlighted in this report are global problems that require global solutions,” said Liu. “Just as problems are interrelated, the solutions to poverty, inequality, climate change, and other global challenges are also interlinked.”
Despite the threats, the report demonstrates that valuable opportunities exist to accelerate progress by leveraging the interlinkages across goals. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for instance, goes hand-in-hand with creating jobs, building more livable cities, and improving health and prosperity for all.
Download full report here.
