If you heard of SDGs but don’t fully understand the term, here’s a brief introduction to the topic. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The SDGs aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people have the opportunity to live peaceful, prosperous lives. Each goal typically has 8–12 targets, and each target has between one and four indicators used to measure progress toward reaching the targets, with the average of 1.5 indicators per target.
The 17 SDGs are:
- No Poverty: End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
- Zero Hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
- Good Health and Well-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
- Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
- Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
- Clean Water and Sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
- Affordable and Clean Energy: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
- Decent Work and Economic Growth: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
- Reduced Inequalities: Reduce inequality within and among countries.
- Sustainable Cities and Communities: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
- Responsible Consumption and Production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
- Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
- Life Below Water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
- Life on Land: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
- Partnerships for the Goals: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
The SDGs are interconnected and require collective action and partnerships between governments, private sector, civil society, and individuals to achieve a sustainable and equitable future for all. One of the goals often coming up in GreenVETers deliverables is the Sustainable Development Goal 13 (SDG 13). This goal is focused on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The specific targets of SDG 13 include:
- Strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
- Integrating climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning.
- Improving education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.
- Implementing the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions.
- Promoting mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries.
- SDG 13 recognizes the urgent need for global action to mitigate the impacts of climate change and prevent further damage to the planet.
References:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/N1529189.pdf
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/A_RES_71_313_E.pdf