Karin Bornett
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) published in December 2020 the "2020 Europe Sustainable Development Report "- A "report on the progress of the EU, the Member States and other European countries in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which were decided by all UN member states in 2015. "
“Rightly, political attention in many European countries continues to be on the public health crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The development of a vaccine makes recovery from the crisis more likely in 2021. This report shows how the SDGs can provide a path to sustainable and inclusive recovery ", says Guillaume Lafortune, Director of SDSN Paris. Celine Charveriat, Executive Director at IEEP, adds: "In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, measuring progress towards the SDGs with the right indicators is essential to ensure equitable, green and resilient reconstruction."
Challenges: Sustainable Agriculture & Food, Climate & Biodiversity
In a press release, the authors summarize: “Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, no European country would achieve all 17 SDGs by 2030 with the measures taken so far. In the SDG Index, one of the main elements of the report, the Nordic countries do best overall. Finland tops the 2020 Europe SDG Index, followed by Sweden and Denmark. But even these countries are still a long way from achieving individual goals. Europe is facing the greatest challenges in the areas of sustainable agriculture and nutrition, climate and biodiversity as well as in strengthening the convergence of living standards of the countries and regions. “Austria ranks 4th overall, Germany rank 6th. A total of 31 countries were examined.
The report also shows that European countries generate enormous negative spillovers, i.e. effects, outside the region: “with serious ecological, social and economic effects for the rest of the world. For example, textiles imported into the EU are associated with 375 fatal accidents at work (and 21.000 non-fatal accidents) annually. Unsustainable supply chains also lead to deforestation and increasing threats to biodiversity. "
The report examines the role of six key political levers and instruments that are particularly important for the implementation of the SDG transformations in the EU and for supporting the SDG progress in other countries:
1. A new European industrial and innovation strategy for the SDGs
2. An investment plan and a financial strategy based on the SDGs
3. Coherent national and European SDG policies - the European semester based on the SDGs
4. Coordinated Green Deal / SDG diplomacy
5. Regulation of corporate standards and reporting
6. SDG monitoring and reporting
You get to the report here.
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