How to Achieve the SDGs
6 years, 7 months, 19 days, 18 hours
2 December 2022
A few weeks ago I took part in a panel convened by the UNECE Public-Private Partnerships, debating how to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
I concluded that four things are required:
1) Clearly defined ambition. The one responsibility which particularly falls to public authorities is to set the target. The statement of what is being aimed at tells all other stakeholders that this is something that matters and deserves their time, commitment and alignment. And humans are naturally problem solvers. Tell us what we are trying to do and we will be clever to try to make it happen. Today 61% of countries have committed to net zero targets, which is great, but means 39% have still to do so. Only 13% of larger cities have set net zero targets. Only 38 countries have targets for phase- 6 years, 7 months, 19 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes out of petrol / diesel / gas vehicles.
2) Harness the power of technology. Only in the last few years have we reached the computing power to crunch the data for entire cities, countries, or industry eco-systems, in days. Only in the last decade has the cost of renewables tumbled so we can talk seriously of solving the energy trilemma with power that is clean, cheap and local. Only today are we on the cusp of battery range for vehicles becoming comparable with how far your car’s tank would last. We need policies that support and incentivise the scaling-up and rapid roll-out of technologies in support of SDG ambitions, and platforms through which stakeholders, for example in particular industry supply-chains, collaborate.
3) Crowd-in more private capital. The world has made spectacular advances in the last year towards compelling disclosure by organisations of their ESG impact. Investors will, as a consequence, become even more keen to seek out sustainable investment opportunities. But today they often struggle to distinguish the truly sustainable from the greenwash, and evaluate the pros and cons of different forecast impacts. We need rapidly to help build SDG lenses into investment appraisal methodologies, based on trusted data.
4) Programmes not projects. There are one-off projects that might make a big difference somewhere, but for global-wide transformations, in our energy generation, in decarbonising the production of steel, in healthcare provision, in cleaning our oceans, in flood protection, in green buildings and affordable housing, we have to take the best solutions and repeat as quickly as possible. An off-the-shelf approach helps public authorities who often lack the expertise to specify from scratch, is more efficient for the supply chain, and allows capital markets to fund at scale.