scholarly journals Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Are we successful in turning trade-offs into synergies?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kroll ◽  
Anne Warchold ◽  
Prajal Pradhan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Virtuous Cycle

Abstract The Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides the framework that all United Nations (UN) member states have pledged to fulfill. The achievement of this agenda crucially depends on whether humankind will be able to maximize synergies and resolve existing trade-offs between the SDGs. We provide the first analysis of future interactions for projected SDG trends until 2030 within and between goals, and we analyze how trade-offs and synergies have evolved in the recent past globally. For certain goals, we find positive developments with notable synergies in our projections, especially for SDGs 1, 3, 7, 8, and 9: Poverty alleviation and strengthening the economy, rooted in innovation, and modern infrastructure, therefore continue to be the basis upon which many of the other SDGs can be achieved. However, especially SDGs 11, 13, 14, 16, and 17 will continue to have notable trade-offs, as well as non-associations with the other goals in the future, which emphasizes the need to foster innovations and policies that can make our cities and communities more sustainable, as well as strengthen institutions and spur climate action. We show examples of a successful transformation of trade-offs into synergies that should be emulated in other areas to create a virtuous cycle of SDG progress. The alarming inability to overcome certain persistent trade-offs we have found, and indeed the deterioration for some SDGs, can seriously threaten the achievement of the Agenda 2030.

scholarly journals A network approach to rank countries chasing sustainable development

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Sciarra ◽  
Guido Chiarotti ◽  
Luca Ridolfi ◽  
Francesco Laio
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Bipartite Network ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Economic Complexity ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Centrality Metrics ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Development Goals

AbstractIn 2015, the United Nations established the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, addressing the major challenges the world faces and introducing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How are countries performing in their challenge toward sustainable development? We address this question by treating countries and Goals as a complex bipartite network. While network science has been used to unveil the interconnections among the Goals, it has been poorly exploited to rank countries for their achievements. In this work, we show that the network representation of the countries-SDGs relations as a bipartite system allows one to recover aggregate scores of countries’ capacity to cope with SDGs as the solutions of a network’s centrality exercise. While the Goals are all equally important by definition, interesting differences self-emerge when non-standard centrality metrics, borrowed from economic complexity, are adopted. Innovation and Climate Action stand as contrasting Goals to be accomplished, with countries facing the well-known trade-offs between economic and environmental issues even in addressing the Agenda. In conclusion, the complexity of countries’ paths toward sustainable development cannot be fully understood by resorting to a single, multipurpose ranking indicator, while multi-variable analyses shed new light on the present and future of sustainable development.

scholarly journals Synergies and Trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10506
Author(s):  
Carlos de Miguel Ramos ◽  
Rafael Laurenti
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Development Goals

The United Nations plans have marked global sustainable development for more than two decades. Most of the developed and developing countries have adopted these plans to achieve the Agenda 2030, currently formed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis of the interactions between the SDGs is a growing area in research and of interest for governments. However, studies on how positive correlations can improve deteriorated goals are scarce for countries to date. This study aims at filling this gap by finding and quantifying the synergies and trade-offs among the SDGs of Spain. During the years 2000–2019, almost 80% of the SDG targets had significant interactions, either positive (synergy) or negative (trade-off). SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 5 (gender Equality) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) contained the largest number of positive interactions, more than 60% in all of them. SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) was strongly linked with indicators from SDG 4 (quality education) and also SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). Furthermore, indicators from SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) shared a high correlation with the ones from SGD 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 15 (life on land). SDG 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 11 (sustainable cities and communities) had the slowest evolution during the years 2000–2019, showing contractions in some instances. We developed a regression model to assess the influence that selected targets have had on a less evolved target (target 8.6—proportion of youth not in education, employment or training). We managed to clarify high influence from target 1.3 (unemployment compensations), target 8.4 (domestic material consumption) and target 10.5 (non-performing loans) on the dependent variable. Identifying numerical dependencies between the SDGs may help nations to develop a roadmap where targets work as cogwheel towards achieving the Agenda 2030.

scholarly journals Optimally Clocking the Low Carbon Energy Mile to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Dundee’s Electric Vehicle Strategy

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 842
Author(s):  
Ayodele Asekomeh ◽  
Obindah Gershon ◽  
Smith I. Azubuike
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Development Goals

Dundee City has been successful in installing green infrastructure for charging electric vehicles (EVs). This intervention matches the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of affordable clean energy (SDG 7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) and climate action (SDG 13) of the United Nations General Assembly Agenda 2030 (Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). Local authorities can align interventions with SDGs according to needs. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether Dundee’s EV strategy represents the most viable and equitable intervention that could be adopted given the city’s context. We adopt a positive review and value argumentation approach to determine the extent to which the strategy satisfies the criteria of “level of urgency”, “systemic impact” and “policy gaps”, which have been employed in the extant literature as the basis for a multi-criteria analysis (MCA). We eclectically review elements of the strategy against the city’s peculiar physical and socio-economic environment, as well as argue their fit against these criteria. We interpret these criteria based on the complementarity and benefits of the strategy from the lenses of SDG 7, SDG 11 and SDG 13. Additionally, we consider the alignment of the EV strategy with the other SDGs. The criteria also allow us to evaluate the strategy based on the localisation principles of equity, acceptability and affordability of the intervention. Our review shows that the EV strategy represents a sustainable and community life-enhancing intervention that aligns with some key SDGs. However, the outcome raises concerns about the equitability of the strategy. Smaller, similar or bigger cities could utilise this approach. However, we recommend the evaluation of local priorities to improve alignment with the SDGs and the provision of clear justifications for selecting an intervention from a range of responses.

Ecological Contradictions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Malaysia

2021 ◽  
pp. 107049652110602
Author(s):  
Mariko L. Frame ◽  
William G. McDowell ◽  
Ellen T. Fitzpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Environmental Goal ◽  
Aggregate Resource

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote a broad set of socio-economic and environmental goals. Through a case study on Malaysia, this paper investigates how economic Goal 8 (economic growth), Goal 9 (industry), and Goal 17(increased partnerships) are likely to conflict with environmental Goal 13 (climate action), Goal 14 (life below water), and Goal 15 (life on land). We analyze data from Economy-Wide Material Flows Analysis (EW-MFA) that captures Malaysia’s aggregate resource use over time and also assess the likely economic and environmental contradictions for Malaysia’s future trajectory by looking at major drivers of Malaysia’s economic growth. Using policy-scoring, we provide a detailed analysis of how the various sectors of growth are likely to result in synergies or trade-offs with the environmental SDGs. We find substantial contradictions between the economic and environmental SDGs for Malaysia. Our paper questions whether or not, when examining a concrete case study, economic and environmental SDGs are compatible.

scholarly journals Higher Education and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—Potential Contribution of the Undergraduate Courses of the School of Social Sciences of the University of Évora

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1828
Author(s):  
Elisa Chaleta ◽  
Margarida Saraiva ◽  
Fátima Leal ◽  
Isabel Fialho ◽  
António Borralho
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
The Other ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The University

In this work we analyzed the mapping of Sustainable Development Goals in the curricular units of the undergraduate courses of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Évora. Of a total of 449 curricular units, only 374 had students enrolled in 2020/2021. The data presented refer to the 187 course units that had Sustainable Development Goals in addition to SDG4 (Quality Education) assigned to all the course units. Considering the set of curricular units, the results showed that the most mentioned objectives were those related to Gender Equality (SDG 5), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8) and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16). Regarding the differences between the departments, which are also distinct scientific areas, we have observed that the Departments of Economics and Management had more objectives related to labor and economic growth, while the other departments mentioned more objectives related to inequalities, gender or other.

scholarly journals Reinterpreting the SDGs: Taking Animals into Direct Consideration

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 843
Author(s):  
Olle Torpman ◽  
Helena Röcklinsberg
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Zero Hunger

The United Nations Agenda 2030 contains 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). These goals are formulated in anthropocentric terms, meaning that they are to be achieved for the sake of humans. As such, the SDGs are neglecting the interests and welfare of non-human animals. Our aim in this paper was to ethically evaluate the assumptions that underlie the current anthropocentric stance of the SDGs. We argue that there are no good reasons to uphold these assumptions, and that the SDGs should therefore be reconsidered so that they take non-human animals into direct consideration. This has some interesting implications for how we should understand and fulfil the pursuit of sustainability in general. Most noticeably, several SDGs—such as those regarding zero hunger (SDG 2), good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), clean water and sanitation (SDG 6)—should be achieved for animals as well. Moreover, the measures we undertake in order to achieve the SDGs for humans must also take into direct account their effects on non-human animals.

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