2019 – Posted in: Daily News

UNITED NATIONS’ REPORT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS – 2019

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: Highlights of the report, Sustainable development goals

Hunger is growing and the world is not on track to end extreme poverty by 2030 and meet other United Nations goals.

This is mainly because progress is being undermined by the impact of climate change and increasing inequality.

It is noted that 2018 was the 4th warmest year on records.
Levels of CO2 continued to increase.
Target is to keep the rate of global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius
Lack of progress is apparent among environment-related goals such as climate action, biodiversity.
Ocean acidity is 26 percent higher than in pre-industrial times.
It is projected to increase by 100 to 150 percent by 2100 at the current rate of CO2 emissions.

The report notes progress in:

Extreme poverty reduction- declined from 36 percent in 1990 to 8.6 percent in 2018.
Widespread immunization.
A decrease in child mortality rates- 49% fall in child mortality between 2000 and 2017.
Increase in people’s access to electricity- electricity now reaching nearly 90% of the world’s population
Individual countries developing climate plans and an increase in the amount of money to finance climate action plans.
Fight against the most dangerous communicable diseases.

Hunger is on the rise- estimated 821 million people undernourished in 2017, up from 784 million in 2015
One in nine people across the world is not getting enough to eat.
Inequality is rising.
On education, it warned that proficiency in reading and mathematics is “shockingly” low.
617 million children of primary and lower secondary school age lacked minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics in 2015.
785 million people had no access to clean drinking water in 2017.
673 million lacked good sanitation systems.
Women represent 39% of the workforce but hold only 27% of managerial positions.
80% of people worldwide are online, but only 45% of those living in developing countries and just 20% in the least developed countries.
Climate action- The lack of progress is visible among environment-related goals such as climate action and biodiversity.
With rising greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is occurring at rates much faster than anticipated.
The average global temperature is already 1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The natural environment is deteriorating-

The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world:

A much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social and economic transformation needed to achieve our 2030 goals.

The UN will host the SDGs, Climate Action Summits and other crucial meetings during the 74th Session of the General Assembly in September.

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