The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are made to develop humanity while also sustaining our natural environment. The organization that has created these goals is the United Nations (UN). The UN was formed in 1945 after the events of World War 2. It is an organization that started off with 51 countries and now has 193 different countries. Its purpose was to maintain international peace and security between countries.
UN Logo
The reason I chose to do this course because this course focuses on these 17 SDGs, but from a local perspective. This provides me with some sense of responsibility, as if I can finally contribute and do my part to help. All the issues the 17 SDGs deals with are mostly seen at a global scale and that they can only be solved by big companies, corporations, and governments. This course helps me realize that I need to do my part to help.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, made by the UN, defines Sustainable Development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. To a normal person this looks like a bunch of random words a kindergarten student has glued together, so let me break it down. Basically, it means that we must solve current problems today (such as poverty, climate change, equality et cetera) while also making sure future generations, like our future kids and grandchildren, are not in trouble either.
The 17 SDGs
To achieve Sustainable Development, the UN has made 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we should achieve by the year 2030. They are:
- No Poverty
- Zero Hunger
- Good Health and Wellbeing
- Quality Education
- Gender Equality
- Clean Water and Sanitation
- Affordable and Clean Energy
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
- Reduced Inequalities
- Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Responsible Consumption and Production
- Climate Action
- Life Below Water
- Life on Land
- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Partnerships for the Goals
Most of them are self-explanatory, like No Poverty, Quality Education, and Gender Equality. But some of them have a deeper meaning. For example, the one that I think is very important, Life Below Water, refers to different things happening to our oceans, which also leads to some very harsh consequences.
These goals are very important today because they will ultimately lead to Sustainable Development and many of the crises currently going on in the world (e.g., global warming, civil wars, et cetera).
But these goals are very vague are not they; they can mean different things to different people. Therefore, the UN also made certain numerical goals under each SDG (like under SDG 14, Life Below Water, there is a numerical target, like 14.1, reduce marine pollution).
In SDG 14: Life Below Water, there has been no progress made in reducing the number of exploited fish, which is a problem. However, the amount of marine territorial water that has been protected has increased by around 25% in countries such as Mexico and Brazil. Otherwise, SDG 14 has been somewhat ignored a bit compared to the other SDGs, even though it is a very important one.
In theory, I believe that all the SDGs are important. However, I believe that some of them cannot be solved as well from a local perspective (e.g., no poverty and zero hunger). However, we can do something to help in each SDG such as:
- Providing food for zero hunger
- Having easier access to education for quality education
- Persuading people to install solar panels for affordable and clean energy.
- Do regular rubbish ups for sustainable cities and communities, climate action and life on land.
- Oxygenating the surrounding rivers and getting rid of the dangerous blue-green algae in there for life below water
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals made by the UN are an important factor, if not THE most important factor in reaching Sustainable Development.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#/media/File:Flag_of_the_United_Nations.svg (UN Logo Image) 17 September 1987) (Made by UN)
https://www.iisd.org/about-iisd/sustainable-development (15/07/2020) (No Author)
https://2020.igem.org/Resources/SDGs (17 SDGs Image) (No Date) (No Author)
https://www.globalgoals.org/14-life-below-water (No Date) (No Author)
https://sdg-tracker.org/oceans#targets (2018) (Ritchie, Roser, Mispy, Ortiz-Ospana)
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/oceans/ (SDG 14: Life Below Water Image) (No Date) (No Author)