What are Sustainable Development Goals? India's Performance is SDGs | UN

In News:

India saw significant improvement in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to clean energy, urban development, and health in 2020, according to NITI Aayog’s 2020 SDG Index. However, there has been a major decline in the areas of industry, innovation, and infrastructure as well as decent work and economic growth.

Top performers: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh

Worst performers: Bihar, Jharkhand, and Assam

NITI Report on SDGs:

NITI Aayog launched its index in 2018 to monitor the country’s progress on the goals through data-driven assessment and to foster a competitive spirit among the States and Union Territories in achieving them.

What is Sustainable Development?

‘Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' - Brundtland Commission in its report Our Common Future (1987).

Sustainable development (SD) calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for people and the planet.

What are the 17 goals?

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2. End hunger - food security, improved nutrition, 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, sustainable management of water & sanitation for all

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable & modern energy for all

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

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

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient & 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 & 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 & build effective, accountable & inclusive institutions at all levels

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

What are the Core Elements of Sustainable Development?

3 core elements of sustainable development are economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection.

Environmental Sustainability:

It prevents nature from being used as an inexhaustible source of resources and ensures its protection and rational use.

Aspects such as environmental conservation, investment in renewable energy, saving water, supporting sustainable mobility, and innovation in sustainable construction and architecture, contribute to achieving environmental sustainability on several fronts.

Social Sustainability:

It can foster gender equality, development of people, communities, and cultures to help achieve a reasonable and fairly distributed quality of life, healthcare, and education across the Globe.

Economic Sustainability:

Focuses on equal economic growth that generates wealth for all, without harming the environment.

Investment and equal distribution of economic resources.

Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions.

What are the Global issues Related to Sustainable Development?

Inequitable growth of national economies (North-South Divide)
Loss of Biodiversity: Despite mounting efforts over the past 20 years, the loss of the world’s biodiversity continues.
Climate Change: As a global problem, climate change requires a global solution. Within climate change, particular attention needs to be paid to the unique challenges facing developing countries.
Tackling climate change and fostering sustainable development are two mutually reinforcing issues.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs): There is a need for welfare for all rich and poor to have affordable access to the results of innovation that can lead to sustainable development.

Way Forward

To make the process of sustainable development feasible and operational, it is important to establish a common focus that can integrate the outlook and efforts of various participants in development, worldwide, realizing the diversity, in terms of geography, society, economics, level of science and technology capabilities and capacities and education standards/levels.
Developed countries need to change their production and consumption patterns, including by limiting the use of fossil fuels and plastics, and encouraging public and private investments that align with the SDGs.
Environmental commons—such as the atmosphere, rainforests, and oceans—must be safeguarded as crucial sources of ecosystem services and natural resources. All stakeholders must work together to conserve, restore and sustainably use natural resources.
The food system must undergo widespread changes to the infrastructure, cultural and societal norms, and policies that are supporting the current, unsustainable, status quo.
A much deeper, faster, and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and economic transformation needed to achieve our 2030 goals.
A far more optimistic future is still attainable only by drastically changing development policies, incentives, and actions.