17 Sustainable Development Goals are set and welcomed

4.8.2015 - At a press conference in New York yesterday, the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised the success of Member States in approving what he called, “a bold, ambitious and transformative sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years.”  Negotiating through the weekend, the 193 Member States reached consensus on seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), inclusive of 168 targets.

The SDGs represent three years of planning and debate which began at the Rio+20 Summit Conference in 2012. At the gathering, a process for reaching an agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was laid out, goals which are set to expire at the end of this year.  The Secretary General said of the agreement that, “it greatly expands upon the success of the MDGs… in many ways, these global goals represent a “to-do” list for people and the planet. They are people-centered and planet-sensitive.”

The approved outcome document is entitled, ‘Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ and can be found on the UN’s Sustainable Development website. A summary of the seventeen SGDs has can be found at www.globalgoals.org.  These goals are:

Goal 1)    End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2)    End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3)    Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4)    Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5)    Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6)    Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7)    Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8)    Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9)    Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10)    Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11)    Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12)    Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13)    Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*

Goal 14)    Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15)    Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16)    Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17)    Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

These SDGs will be formally adopted this September when the UN General Assembly meets from the 25th to the 27th and will then commence with the start of the New Year. From there, as the Secretary General concluded yesterday, ‘implementation and follow-up will be critical…We must continue until we reach our destination of a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous world for all humanity.”