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Progress on over a third of the targets under 15 of the 17 United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has stalled or regressed, according to a UN report.
The widespread slowdown means the world will not be able to achieve 88 per cent of the 2030 goals.
A shocking 65 per cent of the targets under SDG 2 (ending hunger) have seen stagnation or regression, with nearly 50 per cent regressing. Similar trends were observed regarding SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), showed report The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024.
For instance, one of the targets under SDG 2 is to end hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round by all people.
However, nearly one in 10 people globally face hunger. In 2022, some 735 million people, or 9.2 per cent of the world’s population, were in a state of chronic hunger, a significant increase from 7.9 per cent in 2019.
This means that about 122 million more people faced hunger in 2022 compared to 2019. Additionally, 29.6 per cent of the global population — around 2.4 billion people — were moderately or severely food insecure in 2022.
In 2022, the share of countries experiencing moderately to abnormally high food prices soared to a new record of approximately 60 per cent. This was a dramatic increase, nearly four times higher than the average level of 15.2 per cent recorded between 2015 and 2019, and it followed a significant drop of over half in 2021 from the previous peak of 48 per cent in 2020.
Record-high food prices in 2022, driven by climate impacts and conflicts, have worsened purchasing power and access to food, negatively impacting food security and nutritional outcomes.
These trends underscore the severity of the situation and indicate that achieving the zero-hunger target is still far off.
“To get SDGs back on track, a 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,” said Li Junhua, under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs, in the report.
Around 40 per cent of the targets under SDG 14 (life below water) have regressed. The sustainability of global fishery resources has declined from 90 per cent in 1974 to 62.3 per cent in 2021 due to overfishing, pollution, poor management and other factors.
Similarly, over 30 per cent of the targets under SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) have regressed.
One of the targets under SDG 13 is to integrate climate change measures into policies and planning. However, in 2022, global greenhouse gas emissions reached a record 57.4 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent, with about two-thirds of these emissions coming from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes.
Emissions from all major sectors, except transportation, have rebounded since the pandemic and now exceed 2019 levels. The carbon dioxide levels are now 150 per cent above pre-industrial levels, flagged the authors of the report.
While the report pointed at regression of targets under goal on climate actions, 2023, was the 12th consecutive year that carbon dioxide levels rose by more than two parts per million
Just 17 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are on track, according to the report. Under such a scenario, the poor performance on climate action is particularly concerning, as climate change and extreme weather events threaten the achievement of SDG targets. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Economic Forum have both warned that climate change and geopolitical conflicts are top global risks severely impacting progress on the SDGs.
Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, stated in the report that scarring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating conflicts, geopolitical tensions and growing climate chaos are severely hindering SDG progress.
So, with current progress falling far short of what is required to achieve SDGs by 2030, the report released ahead of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development calls upon the world to take corrective actions and accelerate SDG implementation in the remaining six years.
Interestingly, the forum scheduled from July 8-18, 2024 at New York with the theme Reinforcing the 2030 Agenda and eradicating poverty in times of multiple crises: the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient and innovative solutions will review four of the 15 global goals where the global progress has regressed. These include the Goal 2 on ending hunger, Goal 13 on taking actions to combat climate change, Goal 16 on promoting peaceful and inclusive Societies and Goal 17 on partnerships for the goals.
The forum will also review SDG 1 (ending poverty) with just marginal progress observed in over 60 per cent of the targets. By 2022, extreme poverty had returned to pre-pandemic levels in most countries, except low-income ones. Around 712 million people (or 9 per cent of the world’s population) lived in extreme poverty in 2022. This is an increase of 23 million people over 2019. If current trends persist, 590 million people, or 6.9 per cent of the global population, may remain in extreme poverty by 2030 show the UN estimates in the report
According to the report, the global working poverty rate has declined to 6.9 per cent in 2023 from 8.4 per cent in 2015. Despite a falling working poverty rate, more than half of workers living in extreme poverty were still in sub-Saharan Africa (145 million).
The high-level political forum on sustainable development is expected to take note of this report which emphasises the urgent need for intensified efforts to put the SDGs back on track, suggesting actions for accelerating SDG implementation between now and 2030. It also highlighted the annual investment gap for developing countries to achieve SDGs, which stands at $4 trillion.