Toute l'actualitéIn its 2023 report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations sounds the alarm, calling for a rescue plan for humanity and the planet. Progress appears weak and insufficient on more than 50% of the SDG targets - eight years after their adoption and seven years before expiration. At the halfway point in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, urgent, reinforced, and coordinated action by public and private players is becoming essential. Financing and investment are more necessary than ever.
Key ideas from the report
1° The SDGs are in jeopardy:
Of the 140 or so targets assessed, over 30% recorded no progress or, worse still, regression below the 2015 baseline. Disruptions caused by multiple crises have exacerbated problems of fiscal space in low-income countries (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), leading to a reversal of progress on several targets and indicators.
2° Towards a recovery plan:
Agenda 2030 is still seen as the blueprint. However, a rescue plan for people and the planet must encourage fundamental commitment, solidarity, financing, and action changes. In achieving the SDGs, the world must change its current investment patterns and increase the overall investment volume. The urgent objective of the stimulus is to address the chronic international financing gap for the SDGs faced by low-income countries (LICs) and low-middle-income countries (LMICs) and to increase financing flows by at least $500 billion by 2025.
3° The contribution of the private sector:
The report presents a six-point plan to reform the global financial architecture - public and private while implementing the SDGs Recovery Plan. It involves substantially increasing funding for national and sub-national governments and private companies to make the investments needed to achieve the SDGs. The plan also lies in creating ambitious and internationally accepted criteria for sustainable finance, mandatory for all public financial institutions. It requires aligning private company investment flows with the SDGs through improved planning, regulation, reporting, and monitoring at the national level.
The private sector can thus contribute through eight major types of complementary capital assets: human capital, infrastructure, natural capital, innovation capital, commercial capital, social capital, non-traditional statistics, and scientific channels. The private sector can contribute through eight major types of complementary capital: human capital, infrastructure, natural capital, innovation capital, commercial capital, social capital, non-traditional statistics, and scientific channels.
Focus on the status of the SDGs concerning forest ecosystems
Some of the SDGs examined in this report relate directly to forest ecosystems or more indirectly to socio-economic issues or cities (as in the case of urban forests). It is particularly true of:
ODD n° 15. Life on Earth:
The disappearance of forests, soil degradation, and species extinction are still significant threats to the planet and its populations. The risk of extinction of mammal, bird, and amphibian species has accelerated by around 11% since 1993. Halting and reversing biodiversity loss requires a global approach combining regulatory and voluntary measures while mobilizing and aligning funding for biodiversity. Alarming trends in land degradation also demand urgent action: Between 2015 and 2019, at least 100 million hectares of healthy, fertile land were degraded yearly, undermining food and water security on a global scale.
SDG n° 13. Climate action:
To limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be cut by almost half by 2030. However, under the current net-zero commitments of the 193 signatory countries to the Paris Agreement, only a 0.3% reduction is forecast within this timeframe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has called for an immediate, deep, and sustained reduction in global GHG emissions across all sectors. Extreme weather events are already on the increase. Moreover, the uneven impact of the climate crisis on developing countries is considered particularly worrying.
SDG n° 6. Drinking water and sanitation:
To achieve universal coverage by 2030, current rates of progress in drinking water will have to be multiplied by 6, in sanitation by five, and in hygiene by 3. Forests and trees contribute to people and the planet by purifying air and water.
SDG n°. 11. Sustainable cities and communities:
Cities face challenges such as urban sprawl, air pollution, and a lack of public open spaces. Efforts must focus on developing inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban policies that provide essential services, affordable housing, and efficient transport.
SDG n° 2. Zero hunger:
Aid and public spending on agriculture are declining despite the growing global food crisis. Investment in agriculture is crucial to improve efficiency, productivity, and income growth and fight poverty and hunger.
The need to take action in favor of forest ecosystems to meet the SDGs
In particular, the SDGs allow companies to demonstrate the social and environmental value they bring by supporting forest ecosystems.
For example, forests contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals in terms of securing livelihoods in the fight against poverty and food security (SDG no. 1 and 2), as well as good water management (SDG no. 6) and climate action (SDG no. 13). They help to halt and reverse the process of land degradation (SDG target 15.3) and halt the loss of biodiversity (SDG targets 15.1, 15.4, 15.5, 15.9 and 15. a). Above all, measures relating to forests, agriculture, food, land use, rural development, and national development must be synchronized.
Such an integrated approach is essential to progress towards achieving the targets of the SDGs, as already pointed out by the United Nations (FAO) in 2018.
Only seven years remain for all stakeholders to act responsibly in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Therefore, a Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals will be convened on September 18 and 19, 2023, to "mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.» Measures such as introducing regulatory innovations aligning private sector governance models with SDG targets could bring about substantial change if implemented quickly. "If we don't act now, the 2030 Agenda will become the epitaph of a world that could have been." - António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.
References
United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition.
United Nations, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The State of the World’s Forests 2018, Forest pathways to sustainable development.
2023 SDG Summit, 18-19 September 2023, New York.