4.7 Sustainable development goals
Sustainable development
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This is economic development which improves and meets the needs of the current generation without compromising the future generations prospects
Goals
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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals with 169 targets that all 191 UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2030.
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These are
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No Poverty
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Zero hunger
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Good health and wellbeing
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Quality education
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Gender equality
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Clean water and sanitization
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Affordable and clean energy
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Decent work and economic growth[efficient economies with full and fair employment]
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Industry, innovation and infrastructure[Encourage innovation, sustainable industrialisation, strong and safe infrastructure]
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Reduce inequalities[of age, sex, race, origin,etc…]
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Sustainable cities and communities
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Responsible consumption and production[ sustainable consumption/production patterns]
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Climate action[against climate change]
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Life below water[Conserve marine life and oceans]
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Life on land[Conserve ecosystems and nature on land, trees, animals,etc..]
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Peace, Justice and strong Institutions[Peaceful society, fair justice and accountable institutions at all levels
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Partnerships for the goals[Revitalising global partnership to ensure no countries-developed or developing- are left behind
Sustainability and poverty
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To ensure the prior mentioned SDGs are met by 2030 we must recognise that neither poverty nor sustainability can be solved unless the other one is solved as well. These are highly interdependent problems.
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Poverty is a hindrance to sustainability;Poverty leads to lack of awareness or methods to implement sustainable practices
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Poverty is increased by unsustainability;Unsustainable practices like overfishing, deforestation lead to depletion of natural resources and the negative externalities on poor communities exacerbates their dire situations.
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Sustainability helps to reduce poverty;Sustainability provides access to basic needs required to reduce poverty;education,shelter,food,medicine. The SDGs ensure wellbeing and improving livelihoods, and also providing fair jobs to everyone.
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Stable economic growth requires sustainability;economic growth reduces unemployment and of course the ecosystem provides for many of the FOPs. If firms are limited to how many resources they can use, this will lead to innovation to increase efficiency and profits. These resources can then be utilised by the future generations too.