The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024

A promise in peril

Last September, Heads of State and Government gathered in New York for the SDG Summit to review progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and deliberate on areas requiring acceleration. Crucially, they reaffirmed their commitment to the SDGs, agreeing on the need for urgent, ambitious and transformative efforts to achieve the Goals in full by 2030. In the political declaration adopted by the General Assembly, Member States recognized that “the achievement of the SDGs is in peril” and stated their determination “to make all efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the target year of 2030”. Nearly a year later, intensifying, interconnected challenges continue to endanger the realization of the SDGs by the 2030 deadline. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 reveals that progress has ground to a halt or been reversed across multiple fronts, despite reaffirmed pledges. The lingering impacts of COVID-19, compounded by conflicts, climate shocks and economic turmoil, have aggravated existing inequalities. An additional 23 million people were pushed into extreme poverty and over 100 million more suffered from hunger in 2022 compared to 2019. While some health targets improved, overall global health progress has decelerated alarmingly since 2015. The COVID-19 pandemic has undone nearly 10 years of progress on life expectancy. Education, the bedrock of sustainable development, remains gravely threatened as many countries see declines in student math and reading skills, jeopardizing core competencies that will determine future prosperity.

A world in great upheaval

Around the world, wars are upending millions of lives, driving the highest number of refugees (37.4 million) and forcibly displaced people (nearly 120 million) ever recorded. Civilian casualties in armed conflicts rose by 72 per cent between 2022 and 2023, the highest spike since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. In 2023, 4 in 10 civilians killed in conflicts were women and 3 in 10 were children. The cumulative impact of multiple environmental crises is threatening the foundations of planetary ecosystems. In 2023, the world experienced the warmest year on record. For the first time, global temperatures were dangerously close to the 1.5°C lower limit of the Paris Agreement. Global greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached new records yet again in 2022, with no signs of slowing in 2023. Developing and vulnerable countries face vast development challenges. Per capita growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in half the world’s most vulnerable countries is now slower than in advanced economies for the first time this century. This trajectory threatens to reverse a long-term trend towards more income equality among countries. Furthermore, after a decade of rapid debt accumulation, the external debt stock in low- and middle-income countries remains at unprecedentedly high levels. The SDG investment gap in developing countries now stands at $4 trillion per year. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that developing countries are inadequately represented in global economic decision-making, with their voting share falling far short of their membership in many international financial institutions.

A moment of choice and consequence

Time and again, humanity has demonstrated that when we work together and apply our collective mind, we can forge solutions to seemingly intractable problems. This report highlights some encouraging advancements. Increased access to life-saving treatment has averted 20.8 million AIDS-related deaths in the past three decades. In most regions of the world, girls have achieved parity and even pulled ahead of boys in completing schooling at all levels. Two thirds of the world’s population – 5.4 billion people – now have access to the Internet, just as work and employment opportunities are being profoundly transformed by technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI). The world must now confront head on the multiple crises threatening sustainable development, marshalling the determination, ingenuity and resources that such high stakes demand. To get the SDGs back on track, one foremost priority for the global community is to rally all stakeholders to end the conflicts causing unimaginable suffering and misery globally. Sustainable development is simply not possible without peace. Additionally, wealthy economies need to unlock greater financing for vulnerable countries, and developing countries must gain a more equitable role in global economic governance and the international financial system. In all countries, doubling down to pursue a just climate transition is crucial to addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, air pollution and biodiversity loss while reorienting economies towards more sustainable growth. Achieving dignity for all people of all ages requires renewed commitments to gender equality as well as significantly increased investments in health, education and social protection. The time for words has passed. The political declaration of the SDG Summit must be translated into actions. It is still possible to create a better, more sustainable and more inclusive world for all by 2030. But the clock is running out. We must act now, and act boldly.

source :

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2024/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2024.pdf