Sustainable Development Report 2019: Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

A report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network which includes the SDG Index and Dashboard with considerable detail finding mixed results.  Denmark, Sweden and Finland top the Index, but “no country is on track for achieving all 17 goals.”  High-level political commitment to the SDGs is falling short of historic promises, e.g.: SDGs are mentioned in central budget documents in only 18 of 43 countries surveyed.  Half of the world’s nations are not on track for achieving SDG 1 (No Poverty).  Countries obtain their worst scores on SDG13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land).  No country is “1.5^oC compatible” or a Role Model for climate mitigation; all EU countries are “Insufficient,” China is “Highly Insufficient,” and the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are “Critically Insufficient.”  Six transformations are needed to achieve the SDGs, as regards education/gender/inequality, health/wellbeing/demography, energy decarbonization and sustainable industry, sustainable food/land/water/oceans, sustainable cities and communities, and digital revolution for sustainable development (see J.D. Sachs, J. Rockstrom, and five others, “Six Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” Nature Sustainability, 26 August 2019).