Are Sustainable Developmental Goals By UN Really Sustainable?
Since the inception of the era of globalization, economic sustainability has been given significant importance, as it is one of the most crucial factors in stabilizing social, political, and environmental facets. Moreover, sustainability is a requisite in the contemporary world, which is directly related to socio-economic as well as socio-political development.
Sustainable development is a strategic rehabilitation of the environment, from our previous activities, which has been detrimental to our environment, evident from the increased global warming, ozone depletion, rising water levels, desertification, deforestation, increased pollution, loss of biodiversity, and many others. Our natural resources have been depleted as a result of modern technology, industrialization, and urbanization. The socio-economic advancement of Earth has destroyed the environment to such an extent that it has jeopardized the survival of humans and other species on the Earth. The lack of emphasis on the development of a sustainable environment has destroyed the ecosystem, which resulted in increased natural disasters: increased radioactivity, floods, tsunamis, and drastic climate changes. These all factors have threatened the Earth, and if this unhealthy lifestyle continued, then soon we will run out of the natural resources, destroying the planet. Hence, numerous regulatory policies have been adopted, and the sustainable development is one of these regulatory policies, which has been enacted for the protection of the environment, along with the sustainability of the society and economy as well (Chichilnisky, 1997).
The concept of sustainable development had been of fundamental significance, which evolved with the time and advancement. This theoretical hypothesis of sustainable development was primarily correlated with social advancement, however, with political and economic advancement, the concept of sustainable development diversified. Sustainable development evolved into several bureaus including environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, corporate sustainability, scientific sustainability, political sustainability, cultural sustainability, and others. Therefore, it is asserted that sustainability or sustainable development precisely has played a significant role in shaping the modern socio-cultural sphere of the world, and almost every action taken by a country, either on an international or national level, is to ensure sustainable development. Considering the economic sustainability, which is one of the most significant parameters of sustainable development, plays a vital role in the social and political dynamics of a country, for instance, sustainable development is the supreme objective of every governmental policy (Parris, 2003).
The fundamental objective of sustainable developmental policies is to balance social, economic, and environmental needs, which can lead to socio-economic and socio-environmental prosperity. This prosperity is not only beneficial for the present generations but the future generations as well. These objectives are precisely categorized into three types: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection.
One of the most significant effort projects is the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) which was adopted under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations. The Sustainable Development Goal is principally a set of 17 goals, all aimed for the sustainability of the environment and economy, which was provided as an action plan by the United Nations to all the countries, both developing as well as developed (Gaffney, 2015). Though the primary motive of these goals is the flow of capital towards sustainable development, which can be advantageous for economic development as well as for all sectors of the environment. The 17 goals incorporated in the SDG are,
1. Ending poverty in all of its forms, from all around the globe.
2. Ending hunger, by promoting improved nutrition by sustainable agricultural development, thereby increasing food security.
3. To improve life quality by ensuring healthy lives and the well-being of people of all ages.
4. To improve the quality of education, by promoting lifelong learning opportunities for everyone.
5. To achieve gender equality by empowering girls and women, all across the world.
6. To ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all individuals.
7. To ensure that sustainable and reliable energy is available to everyone.
8. To promote sustainable economic growth leading to sustained financial management.
9. To promote sustainable industrialization, and sustained infrastructure, by bringing innovation in the construction industry.
10. To end the sorts of inequality and discrimination from the world.
11. To make human cities and settlements inclusive and sustained, by assuring security and resilience of buildings.
12. To ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13. To take necessary actions to fight against the hazardous effects of climate change.
14. To conserve the natural resources, especially water by the sustainable use of oceans, leading to sustainable development.
15. To protect, restore and foster sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, by effective management of forests, desertification, land degradation, and to protect biodiversity from loss.
16. To promote peaceful and comprehensive societies for the sustainable development. And to provide justice to all by establishing effective and accountable institutions.
17. To strengthen the mechanisms of implementation, and to revitalize the global alliances for speeding up sustainable development.
Though all of these goals are quite interdependent, they are highly interrelated, with each of the goals associated with sustainable development. Several actions have been taken by the United Nations for achieving these goals. In fact, United Nations has also directed governments all across the globe to take certain actions that would protect the environment, natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, and climate. And besides these factors leading to environmental sustainability, several other factors are leading to sustainable development. For instance, social sustainability, including equality, social justice, peace, women empowerment, technological sustainability, industrial sustainability, and infrastructural sustainability (Robert, 2005). Hence, all of the set targets of the Sustainable Development Goals are aimed at financing sustainable development programs, which can ultimately lead to the betterment of the Earth in different socio-economic and socio-cultural ways.
The United Nations, to check out the progress, undertaken by the goals has set up monitoring indicators, that include numerous tools that indicate and visualize the progress made to achieve each of the goals. If we track down the success of each of these goals, it has been evaluated that SDG has been quite successful. Considering the poverty, it is found that in 2015, the year in which Sustainable Development Goals were adopted, approximately 1.9 billion people were living in extreme poverty, which reduced to 88 million people are living in extreme poverty in 2020, while it is predicted that only 359 billion people will be poor by 2030. This clearly demonstrates the success of the SDG (Stafford-Smith, 2017).
Similarly, if we consider the hunger in the world, it has been evaluated that in 2015, approximately 795 million slept hungry, which drastically reduced to approximately 150 million in 2021, showing the success attained on one of the 17 goals of the sustainable development plan.
Considering educational sustainability, nearly 86% of the world population was calculated to be literate in 2015, which increased to 86.3% in 2021, demonstrating that there had only been a little success. However, significant efforts are being made to counter illiteracy.
The quality of life has also been somehow sustainable, with the advancement in technology and infrastructure. People are now less vulnerable to social injustices and discrimination. Women are now more empowered, and more independent. Hence, we can say that Sustainable Development Goals are on the successful way, leading to social, political, cultural, environmental, industrial, and technological sustainability (Nilsson, 2016).
Hence, we can infer that the Sustainable developmental goals had been somehow beneficial, but a significant effort is still required for socio-economic and socio-political sustainability.
