Sustainable development goals off-track

Growing inequality and climate change  derail progress towards global sustainability goals but also threaten human existence, leading scientists said at the United Nations.  The world is off track on the 17 sustainable development goals known as SDGs adopted in 2015, setting out a wide-ranging "to-do" list tackling conflict, hunger, land degradation, gender equality and climate change by 2030, a panel of scientists said in an independent assessment report.

"Overall, the picture is a sobering one," said Shantanu Mukherjee, policy chief at the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. "One element of this is increasing inequality...Another is the pace at which nature is being degraded by human activity, whether it is climate change or biodiversity loss."

The independent panel of scientists investigated the ways and systems in which humans and the environment are linked and interact, said Peter Messerli of the University of Bern, Switzerland, the co-chair of the group of scientists.

"These systems are on a very worrying trajectory, threatening the very existence of humanity," he told reporters. "We have not realized the urgency to act now."

Countries must put into practice ways to address vast gaps in wealth distribution and access to economic opportunities and technological advances that undermine innovation and economic growth, the report said. 

The report called on nations to focus on food and energy production and distribution, consumption and urban growth to find ways of building sustainable development. The cost of implementing the global goals has been estimated at $3 trillion a year.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/climate-change-and-inequality-derailing-global-goals-scientists-tell-un/articleshow/71095207.cms