The Sdgs Can Get Back On Track World Economic Forum

Mirek Dušek, Managing Director, World Economic Forum With just five full years left to meet the 169 targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress is – even to the most optimistic – falling far short. Just 17% of the goals are on track, almost one-half show minimal or moderate progress, and one-third are stalling or regressing. To have a real chance at hitting these targets, progress must be dramatically accelerated. The lack of progress on meeting the SDGs has been exacerbated by economic headwinds worldwide. Global economic growth has failed to restart in any meaningful way since the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a situation that has prompted the International Monetary Fund’s Kristalina Georgieva to describe the decade...

Following the pandemic, annual productivity growth has plummeted, standing at just 0.4% in advanced economies, 0.8% in emerging economies and a grim 0% in low-income countries. Historically, technology has offered a path to growth and productivity, and the situation is no different today, albeit with an unprecedented pace of change. In particular, the simultaneous and exponential innovation and deployment of whole sets of interconnected technologies are leading the transition into the Intelligent Age. The Intelligent Age represents a seismic shift in the drivers of socioeconomic change and growth. It is anchored in deep, multifaceted transformations that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), the bioeconomy, climate and energy transition-related technologies, quantum, robotics, space and more, are driving within societies, economies and industries. New York, USA, 26 September 2024 – In a world facing significant geopolitical, economic and environmental shifts, the World Economic Forum gathered over 1,400 business leaders, policy-makers, leaders from international and civil society organizations,...

The meetings served as a crucial platform for public-private collaboration, where key announcements were showcased and public discussions in support of reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were forged. Currently, only 17% of SDG targets are on track for 2030, with nearly half making minimal or moderate progress, and over one-third stalled or in some cases regressing. In response, the Forum has mobilized urgent public-private collaboration to advance these vital goals and drive action, partnerships and innovation in sustainability. These initiatives and their key communities met to advance their work at the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings. “We stand on the brink of the Intelligent Age, an era defined by blending artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technologies into everyday life,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Chairman, World Economic Forum. “This sweeping transformation presents a profound paradox: the same technologies that hold extraordinary promise for unprecedented growth, innovation and human progress also risk deepening divides and exacerbating inequalities.”

“If we don’t partner with nature, we won’t be able to control climate change,” said Maria Susana Muhamad, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and President of the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16),... “Meeting the challenge of the climate crisis is the biggest economic opportunity the planet has known since the Industrial Revolution. Everything has to be changed. We have to win this battle,” said John F. Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (2021-2024), US Department of State. © Shutterstock/Suwin | Mitigation strategies such as adopting renewable energy account for more than 90% of international climate investments, according to UNCTAD estimates.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can get back on track with more funding and targeted large-scale green investment in developing countries, also known as the global South. “True investments at scale are the only way to really get back in the race,” said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan. Ms. Grynspan spoke at an event entitled “Promoting investment for Sustainable Development Goals: Repurposing capital”, held on 17 January on the margins of the World Economic Forum's 2023 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She was part of a high-level panel that included José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and president of Timor-Leste; Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s minister of international cooperation; and Olivier Becht, France’s minister for foreign trade,... Almost 10 years ago, countries worldwide adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 targets for the global community to achieve by 2030 to ensure peace and prosperity for current and future generations.

The first of these goals, SDG 1, calls for an end to poverty in all its forms everywhere. While much progress has been made to reduce global poverty, the hard truth is we are not on track to meet this goal. Following decades of declining global poverty, the pace of reduction began to slow down around 2015, in tandem with tepid economic growth. During 2020-2022, there were severe setbacks in poverty reduction as countries reeled from overlapping crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate shocks, high debt, and fragility and conflict. In 2022, around 712 million people were living in extreme poverty, on less than $2.15 per day, the poverty line for low-income countries. Poverty also remains a serious challenge in many middle-income countries.

In 2022, 3.6 billion people, nearly half the global population, were living on less than $6.85 per day, the poverty line for upper-middle-income countries. But poverty is not just about a lack of income. Millions of people are deprived daily of their essential needs, such as access to health care, education, housing, water, or electricity, thereby also denied their dignity. With our current pace of progress, almost 600 million people—around 7 percent of the world’s population—will still be living in extreme poverty by 2030, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa or fragile and conflict-affected... At this rate, it could take over three decades to eradicate extreme poverty. Global Memos are briefs by the Council of Councils that gather opinions from global experts on major international developments.

World leaders unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, ambitiously aiming to speed economic prosperity and social wellbeing while protecting the environment. Unfortunately, the world is not on track to meet the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The United Nations convened a high-level political forum on sustainable development on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month aiming to put the world back on track. Five Council of Councils experts reflect on the 2023 SDGs summit and discuss whether countries should prioritize a subset of specific SDGs going forward. Director, Global Economy and Finance Programme, Chatham House (United Kingdom) The United Nations’ latest update on progress toward meeting the SDGs paints a dire picture.

Progress on more than 50 percent of targets is weak and insufficient and 30 percent have stalled or reversed. The reasons why are clear—the pandemic, the escalating effects of climate change, and Russia’s war on Ukraine. At last month’s halfway summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a “Rescue Plan for People and Planet” to re-energize pursuit of the goals through an SDG stimulus and a reform of the international... He achieved some support in the concluding high-level political declaration, but very little, if anything, in terms of concrete commitments.

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