United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
At the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, world leaders adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These global goals aim to address inequalities and challenges all across the planet whilst aiding development and protecting the environment. Meeting the target date of 2030 will require the work and co-operation of all these governments and the UN along with businesses and members of the public.
The Sustainable Development Goals are:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty, halving the number of people living in poverty and increasing their resilience to exposure and extreme events
Goal 2: Eradicate hunger by ensuring universal access to safe, nutritious food and ensuring sustainable food production that is resilient to climate change and extreme events
Goal 3: Guarantee the health and wellbeing of all by reducing deaths, combating epidemics and ensuring universal health-care coverage including access to sexual and reproductive health-care services and education
Goal 4: Ensure free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education to all and equal access to affordable and quality technical and vocational education such as university
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality; ending discrimination, violence and harmful practices against women and girls, ensuring women have equal access and rights to economic resources (such as land ownership) and full participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making
Goal 6: Ensure safe and affordable drinking water and adequate sanitation for all, improving water quality and management and protecting and restoring water related ecosystems
Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all and investing in and increasing energy efficiency and the proportion renewable energy contributes to the global energy supply
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth (endeavouring to decouple growth and environmental degradation), full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9: Promote infrastructure and inclusive industrialisation that is reliable, resilient, affordable and sustainable with equitable access for all
Goal 10: Reduce inequality and discrimination, promoting the empowerment and inclusion of all economically, socially and politically and enhancing representation in decision making and financial and development assistance for developing countries
Goal 11: Increase the number of cities and human settlements, improving the sustainability, inclusivity, resource efficiency and resilience to extreme events and ensuring adequate, affordable and safe housing and services, transport for all
Goal 12: Ensure sustainable management, consumption and production regarding use of natural resources, halving global per capita food waste and encouraging companies and the public to adopt sustainable practices and procurement to reduce, recycle and reuse waste
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, increasing every countries resilience and ability to adapt to climate change, improving education and awareness and implementing national measures against climate change and the commitments made to the UN FCCC in assisting developing countries mitigate and adapt
Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, reducing pollution, ocean acidification and overfishing
Goal 15: Conserve, restore and sustainably use terrestrial ecosystems, combat deforestation and desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions on regional, national and international scales
Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation of sustainable development strategies through financial, technological and cooperative means and enhancing international support and growth for developing countries