Trending science: Sustainable Development Goals – the role of researchers
Last month, world leaders came together in New York to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs aimed to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. Although the predecessors of the SDGs – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – made significant headway in tackling global challenges, the fact remains that 836 million people still live in extreme poverty and global emissions of carbon dioxide have increased by almost 50 % since 1990. Achieving the SDGs will be an immense challenge demanding a relentless 15-year global push. It’s clear that apart from the profound efforts by governments, the private sector and civil society, intense support from the research community will be crucial if we are to achieve these 17 ambitious goals and their accompanying 169 targets. For instance, the target of ‘ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and combating hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases’ calls for significant research input, particularly in relation to certain NTDs. Additionally, meeting the energy targets of ‘increasing substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix’ and ‘doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency’ will demand considerable research and innovation efforts. However, concerns have been raised that the goals are too numerous and too vague for any community, research or otherwise, to tackle. Nature dubs the SDGs as the ‘UN’s “to do” list for wiping out poverty without wrecking the environment’ and quotes Steven Radelet, director of the Global Human Development Program at Georgetown University, noting, ‘They may fall prey to the old adage that if every¬thing is a priority, then nothing is a priority.’ Meanwhile Scientific American bluntly opines, ‘Let’s be honest: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) […] are a mess. As they currently stand, the goals neither organize nor prioritize global efforts to improve the human condition while serving as stewards of the planet. As a result, they risk becoming an empty exercise that empowers business as usual in the field of global development.’ Regardless of their supposed flaws, these are the goals that have been adopted, warts and all. So how should the scientific community respond? Mark Stafford Smith, a researcher at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Canberra notes in Science, ‘People have piled everything in there, but the research community can focus on a much smaller set of integrated goals. If we don’t do that, then we will find that these potential conflicts become real ones.’ It will be up to the scientific community to identify simpler indicators and policies that will promote progress, says Stafford Smith. He also encourages researchers to find ways to prevent conflicts between goals: ‘For example, without advances in efficiency and a shift towards renewable energy, the expansion of access to modern energy sources (goal 7) would interfere with the goal of keeping global warming in check (goal 13).’ Input from the research community will also be needed to monitor progress and help keep it on track. Nature points in particular to a project called The World in 2050 through which researchers use computer models to explore the socio-economic implications of climate change. This team is now leading an analysis to identify policy scenarios that can assure that the goals are met over the next few decades. For further information, please visit: UN sustainable development website
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