SDGs Under Threat: Climate Crisis, COVID-19, and War in Ukraine Jeopardize Environmental Targets

As the world grapples with the climate crisis, COVID-19, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, progress on several key environmental targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being threatened, according to a new report from the United Nations. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 highlights that the global crises are hampering efforts to limit plastic pollution, protect endangered species, and provide clean drinking water to all humanity.

Key Takeaways:

• The ocean, the planet's largest ecosystem, is being choked by plastic pollution, with an estimated 17 million metric tonnes of plastic entering the world's oceans in 2021, a figure expected to double or triple by 2040.
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, includes 17 goals and hundreds of indicators to be achieved by 2030, with many linked to the environment and several unlikely to be met at the current rate of progress.
• National commitments point to a nearly 14 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, instead of the sharp decline required to limit warming to meet the 1.5 C target set out in the Paris Agreement.
• Despite progress on providing clean drinking water to everyone on the planet, the world will miss its goal of providing safe drinking water to everyone by 2030, with current rates of progress needing to increase fourfold to reach universal coverage.
• Countries are sustainably managing their forests, protecting sites critical to biodiversity, and enacting national conservation legislation and policies, but opportunities are being lost, such as integrating biodiversity considerations into economic recovery measures.
• The Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a transparent legal framework for the implementation of fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources.

Statistics:

• 17 million metric tons of plastic entered the world's oceans in 2021.
• An estimated 2 billion people lacked access to safely managed drinking water services in 2020.
• Current rates of progress would need to increase fourfold to reach universal coverage of safely managed drinking water services by 2030.
• National commitments point to a nearly 14 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
• The 1.5 C target set out in the Paris Agreement is likely to be missed, with warming expected to reach as high as 3.2 C if current trends continue.

Sources:

• The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 (United Nations)
• The Paris Agreement (United Nations)
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations)
• The Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations)