“The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on time-bound targets for prosperity, people, planet, peace, and partnership—collectively known as the five Ps.
By adopting the 2030 Agenda with its 17 SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement, UN member states effectively created a framework for national action and global cooperation on sustainable development, while the Paris Agreement committed signatory countries to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.
SDG 13 on climate change specifically links to the Paris Agreement noting that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change “is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.”
Despite the interconnectivity and clear aims of these global goals, stakeholders seem to lack a shared understanding of how the 17 SDGs can be operationalized.
The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change call for deep transformations that require complementary actions by governments, civil society, science, and business.
IIASA contributed to a new study outlining six major transformations that will be required to achieve these ambitious goals.
“The 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement have given the world an aspirational narrative and an actionable agenda to achieve a just, safe, and sustainable future for all within planetary boundaries.
The six transformations provide an integrated and holistic framework for action that reduces the complexity, yet encompasses the 17 SDGs, their 169 targets, and the Paris Agreement.
They provide a new approach to shift from incremental to transformational change; to identify synergies using sustainable development pathways; formulate actionable roadmaps; and a focus on inter-relationships to uncover multiple benefits and synergies,” explains study co-author Nebojsa Nakicenovic, executive director of The World in 2050 (TWI2050) research initiative at IIASA.” [and long time IPCC author and activist].
The origin of the 2 degrees meme goes back to economist William Nordhaus in 1975, in a working paper for IIASA):
CAN WE CONTROL CARBON DIOXIDE? William D. Nordhaus June 1975
“IIASA is a non-governmental institution funded by scientific organizations in its member countries, which currently include: Austria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Germany, India (Observer), Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Vietnam. Funding for the Institute also comes from contracts, grants, and donations from governments, international organizations, academia, business, and individuals.“
“Pursuing the six transformations will require deep, deliberate, long-term structural changes in resource use, infrastructure, institutions, technologies, and social relations, which have to happen in a relatively short time window.
Previous societal transformations, like industrialization in 19th century Europe, were initiated by technological changes like the steam engine and were largely undirected, while 20th century technologies like semiconductors, the Internet and Global Positioning Systems, were promoted through directed innovation to meet military aims.
The authors emphasize that it is crucial that SDG transformations are formally directed in order to meet time-bound, quantitative targets, such as net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century.
“By achieving change in these six key areas, we can save both people and planet. To deliver on both ambitious climate targets and meet all the Sustainable Development Goals, we identify very concrete levers that governments can pull.”
Pretty clear where they are going with this, it is UN policy and politicians have always been
on-board. Co-author, ecologist Johan Rockstrom, is now Co-Director at Potsdam with economist Otto Edenhofer.
It’s been a long journey and all the pieces are starting to come together, check it out here: https://www.
