Anti-SDG Sentiment and Actions

There is “no global anti-SDG sentiment, though these are starting to appear in some populist parties in several countries around the world”, so says the Journal of International Development Cooperation¹.  Moreover, it claims that “global support for Agenda 2030 has not yet eroded”.  However, is says further that this “cannot be taken for granted of course especially as failure looms on the horizon”.

The rejection and denouncement of the UN SDGs by the United States “forms part of a broader retreat by the Trump administration from international climate and sustainability initiatives, including removing the U.S. from key climate financing endeavours, and exiting the Paris Agreement”, according to ESG Today². 

The United Nations “2024 Sustainable Development Goals Report highlighted that nearly half the 17 targets are showing minimal or moderate progress, while over a one-third are stalled or going in reverse”, says the UN Sustainable development Group³.  “Our failure to secure peace, to confront climate change and to boost international finance is undermining development”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

“The system-level risk of widening income inequality and declining labour income share, if left unaddressed, will combine with rising inflation to further reduce households' purchasing power and hence well-being.  If this happens, net zero momentum could be lost, and anti-ESG and anti-SDG sentiment could increase and spread globally”, according to the PRI Association⁴.

The scientific evidence on the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals “suggests only limited transformative political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals thus far”, according to Nature Sustainability⁵ .  The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC)⁶ is alarmed by the lack of political action against climate change in Europe: “Six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been breached.  And the seventh is about to be breached, too.”  This bodes badly for the SDGs and ill the world.