Heading towards an unsustainable world: some of the implications of not achieving the SDGs
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Heading towards an unsustainable world: some of the implications of not achieving the SDGs Walter Leal Filho1 · Franziska Wolf1 · Amanda Lange Salvia1 · Ali Beynaghi2 · Kalterina Shulla3 · Marina Kovaleva1 · Claudio R. P. Vasconcelos4,5 Received: 22 July 2020 / Accepted: 19 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020 OPEN
Abstract The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were conceived at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 (Rio + 20), and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. They are part of a larger framework, namely the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since then, many countries round the world have been engaging in respect of their implementation. The slow progress seen in the implementation of the SDGs, is in contrast with the many negative implications of not implementing them. This paper outlines the relevance of the SDGs, the barriers currently seen in respect of their implementation and outlines what is at stake, if they are not duly implemented. To accomplish this, a thorough literature review of contributions published in the field of SDGs in English between the years 2012–2020 was performed.
1 Introduction: the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals During the past centuries, almost all the systems have been developed through natural processes. However, with the technological advancements today, development is moving faster than our expectations. Therefore, having no plan for well-being and environment can cause serious problems to the future societies. As a result of the fast-moving unbalanced economic growth, the world’s systems may lose their ability to adjust with the people’s well-being which also significantly affect the environment. In this era, having a systematic action plan can definitely help to focus on a common perspective. To this end, on 25 September 2015, countries in UN adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), representing a new coherent way of thinking about ecological, social, and economic issues that are inter-related [1]. Considering as the “transformative agenda” [2], the SDGs address all the critical and major global challenges that threat the future, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice, necessarily entails an integrated approach. Different studies have analyzed challenges and opportunities of the SDGs [3, 4]. Some scholars and practitioners have referred to the fact that these goals are not easy to achieve due to the diversity of the elements involved [5]. Moreover, the importance of including interdependencies between the goals [6, 7], taking a nexus approach [8–10], and strengthening
* Marina Kovaleva, Marina.Kovaleva@haw‑hamburg.de; Walter Leal Filho, [email protected]‑hamburg.de; Franziska Wolf, Franziska.Wolf@ haw‑hamburg.de; Amanda Lange Salvia, [email protected]; Ali Beynaghi, [email protected]; Kalterina Shulla, kalterina@ yahoo.co.uk; Claudio R. P. Vasconcelos, [email protected] |
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