805. Sustainable Development Report 2023: All SDGs are Off Track

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015, with a deadline of 2030 for their achievement. We are now at the midpoint.

In June, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) released its Sustainable Development Report 2023. The SDSN is a network established in 2012 under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General to bring together global scientific and technological expertise to propose practical solutions for sustainable development.

This report includes SDG indicators and dashboards to track progress toward achieving the SDGs. While some progress was made in the early years, progress towards achieving the SDGs reversed for the first time in 2020, and since then, progress towards the SDGs has stalled globally. This is due not only to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to the simultaneous emergence of multiple international crises related to health, climate, biodiversity, geopolitics, and military affairs.

While this development is alarming, the report states that efforts towards the SDGs should be stepped up, as they are not necessarily out of reach and are still achievable goals. In essence, the SDGs are an investment agenda, and it is important for UN member states to adopt and implement SDG stimulus measures and support comprehensive reform of the global financial architecture.

Based on the list of SDG indicators, which measure overall progress toward achieving the SDGs by country, Finland (first place last year) leads all countries, followed by Sweden (third place last year), Denmark (second place last year), and other Nordic countries. The top 20 countries are in Europe. Japan is ranked 21st out of 166 countries, dropping further from 15th in 2019, 17th in 2020, 18th in 2021, and 19th in 2022. Japan is reported to have particularly significant remaining challenges, especially with respect to SDGs 5 (gender equality), 12 (responsible consumption and production), 13 (climate action), 14 (life below water), and 15 (life on land).

Reference
SDSN. Sustainable Development Report 2023. 
https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/, Accessed on June 22, 2023.

Contributor: SHIRATORI Sakiko (Information and Public Relations Office)