UN Sustainable Development Goals

If there’s one thing the world can agree on, it’s that we have many challenges to overcome. From climate change to poverty and healthcare, there is no shortage of issues humans need to tackle to make the world a better place for all. The United Nations established 17 Sustainable Development Goals that, according to the United Nations,

In this article, we’ll give an overview of what the Sustainable Development goals are, their background, and their significance today.

Overview of UN Sustainable Development Goals

The current UN Sustainable Development Goals evolved from the Millennium Development Goals, a similar set of international development goals agreed upon in 2000, to be met by 2015. In 2015, the current UN Sustainable Development Goals were established, with the hope that all goals will be met by the year 2030. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, ranging from ending all poverty to creating gender equality.

Fig. 1 - Illustration of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

The overarching idea behind the Sustainable Development Goals is to create a set of aims that allows humanity to coexist peacefully for years to come. This aligns with the United Nation’s overall mission of promoting international cooperation and peace. In September 2015, all 193 member nations of the UN General Assembly voted to approve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Main Characteristics of UN SDGs

Each Sustainable Development Goals contains certain indicators and metrics that are used to see how much progress is being made on that goal.

Goal and Target

The Sustainable Development Goal itself is either something relatively specific like Goal 1: no poverty, or broader like Goal 10: reduced inequalities. Each of these goals has several targets, essentially a series of sub-goals meant to help achieve the SDG. For example, Goal 10 has the target of adopting wage and social protection policies worldwide. Targets help to further define the SDG and are especially useful to clarify the intent of the vaguer goals.

Indicators

Every goal and target also comes with a set of indicators, which are metrics to evaluate progress on the target. Goal 1's indicators include the percentage of the population living below the poverty line and whether people are allowed access to social welfare systems regardless of who they are.

The key characteristic of indicators is that they are generally quantifiable, meaning able to be measured using a number. The UN has defined where they want each of the indicators to be by 2030, and it’s key in determining whether countries have met the targets and goals. Presently, there are 231 total indicators for all 17 SDGs.

Review

Because every UN member nation signed the Sustainable Development Goals, every nation is also reviewed on its progress towards achieving the 17 goals. Experts from around the world look at statistics and available data to see what progress is being made toward reaching the SDGs.

This work is no easy task because much of the data can be unavailable, unreliable, and simply tedious to obtain from all 193 countries. Some metrics, however, like GDP and GDP per capita are easily obtained and there’s a standardized way of measuring them. These kinds of indicators are considered Tier 1. Tier 2 indicators have a standardized way of measuring them but are not easily obtained. Finally, Tier 3 indicators do not have a standard for measuring them and are not easily obtained.

Importance of UN Sustainable Development Goals

Now that we’ve gone over some of the main characteristics of UN SDGs, let’s discuss the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainability

The main importance of UN Sustainable Development goals is right in its title: sustainability!

'Sustainability' gets bandied about a lot in discussions about the environment, but it means more than just ensuring our planet has a brighter future. It’s one thing to make great improvements to living standards, but another to make sure that those standards can be maintained for years to come. The SDGs aim to ensure that lives around the world are improved not just temporarily but to make sure there is lasting prosperity.

International Cooperation

Creating the Sustainable Development Goals was an exercise in international cooperation, and that cooperation is also a key to ensuring their success. It took several months to develop the SDGs, and representatives from around the world participated in that process. Being able to cooperate on a global scale is fundamental to sustainability as well. Many issues like climate change impact us all and without being able to cooperate, any solution would be virtually impossible. In short, the SDGs are significant for promoting and maintaining international cooperation.

UN Sustainable Development Goal of Education

Promoting education is much more than just ensuring everyone can go to school. It also includes teaching important skills and knowledge to those who are long finished with formal schooling. We can break down the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Education into formal education and public awareness.

Formal Education

Goal 4: Quality Education is the SDG dedicated to ensuring that everyone has educational opportunities, from preschool to college and beyond. Access to education is limited in many parts of the world, and the building of schools, hiring of teachers, and providing supplies are key to expanding access. Ensuring that everyone can attend school regardless of race, gender, or class is also essential; a place with plenty of schools but only accessible to a privileged few is not sustainable.

Like most SDGs, Goal 4 has synergy with plenty of other goals, especially with Goal 1: No Poverty. Children around the world are forced to leave school to work and provide for their families, and eliminating poverty can significantly reduce the need for this and bring more children into the school system.

Formal education doesn’t just include children, however, and Goal 4 includes provisions to bring technical and vocational training to adults as well. Teaching skilled and semi-skilled labor to a population helps boost its economic growth and provides opportunities to those who want a change in job and potential for higher pay.

Fig. 2 - Schoolchildren in southern India

Public Awareness

Education goes far beyond the classroom. Ensuring the public is knowledgeable about good health practices, their rights, and opportunities available to them is also key to achieving nearly every Sustainable Development Goal. Take SDG Goal 3: Good Health and Well Being. While building hospitals and having doctors is essential, so much of our health comes down to our own knowledge. Being able to identify when it’s necessary to get medical health, knowing safe ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, and knowing to get vaccinated are all things reliant upon good public health awareness.

Affordable and Clean Energy Sustainable Development Goal

We need energy for everything. Turning on the lights and powering our vehicles and transit systems affordably and in a green way is a huge factor in ensuring a sustainable future. UN Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy aims to map out exactly how we can achieve that by 2030. Fossil fuel emissions are the principal contributor to climate change, so curbing their use and promoting renewable energy is key to ensuring a healthy future. Not only essential to helping stem the impacts of climate change, affordable and sustainable energy is also important to eliminating poverty and generating economic growth.

Fig. 3 - Renewable energy sources like wind provide sustainable solutions to our energy needs

Energy does not just include electricity, and also means what we use to power our vehicles and even cook our food. Many people in the world still use wood-burning stoves to cook food, and it’s very harmful to our health and the environment. Getting everyone off of using wood-burning stoves to something like electric burners powered by renewable energy can help promote a more sustainable future for the environment and human health.

UN Sustainable Development Goals Examples

As we previously discussed, there are several UN Sustainable Development Goals that address poverty, health, and energy. There are various other examples of UN Sustainable Development Goals, including promoting clean water, creating more responsible industrial processes, and making our cities more prosperous. One area in which much of the world is improving is the elimination of poverty. While the world does suffer setbacks during events like recessions and pandemics, overall the rate of extreme poverty has been trending downwards for decades.

However, progress toward reducing carbon emissions and biodiversity loss has not been moving in a positive direction, with most metrics showing environmental conditions worsening. In all, there has been mixed progress toward the UN SDGs, but there is still time to turn things around by 2030.