1st October 2015 | Dave Bookless | 2 comments

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – an agenda for the next 15 years?

SDG Sustainable Development Goals 1200px

(Learn more about how A Rocha’s work supports the SDGs around the world)

On 25 September 2015, 193 nations gathered at the UN in New York to launch 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1]. The SDGs build on a process that began with the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and has continued via the 1992 Rio Earth Summit’s ‘Agenda 21’ and more recently the Millennium Development Goals which lasted from 2000-2015. The new SDGs will now set the global development, environmental and international political agenda for the next 15 years until 2030. The SDGs are wide-ranging and can be helpfully summarised under seven main headings [2]:

  1. Dignity and wellbeing for all: ending poverty and embracing equality for all.
  2. Life in all its fullness for all people: ensuring basic needs are met, enabling access to services, training and jobs, with a special emphasis on inclusion of all people.
  3. Just societies: enabling just and fair institutions and polices that promote justice for all.
  4. Peace: working towards sustainable peace while embracing diversity.
  5. Restoring and protecting our planet: living within planetary boundaries and ensuring recovery of ecosystems.
  6. Sustainable development: encouraging fair economic productivity within ecologically sound frameworks with a commitment towards renewable energy sources.
  7. Cooperation and partnerships: seeking the best for one another in which joint initiatives aim to enhance the common good for all in the realisation of all the SDGs.

In this blog there’s not the space to give a detailed analysis of each of the 17 goals, or of the 169 targets and 304 measurable indicators they contain! Rather, I want to suggest some pointers as Christian organizations and individuals engage with this important process.

[1] UN, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

[2] Helpfully summarised by Micah Global: Sustainable Development Goals Launched

[3] The Economist, The 169 commandments

[4] UNDP, China’s success on Millennium Development Goals provides an example for others to follow

[5] Time Magazine, Transcript: Read the Speech Pope Francis Gave to the United Nations by Ryan Teague Beckwith

[6] ibid.

[7] eg togetherforthecommongood.co.uk

[8] Now The End Begins blog, The United Nations Prophecy Bomb Pope Francis Dropped That Nobody Caught by Geoffrey Grider

[9] UN, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

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Categories: Reflections
About Dave Bookless

Dave is Director of Theology for A Rocha International, where he works to embed creation care into international Christian organizations, theological institutions, and mission movements. His past roles with A Rocha include being an International Trustee and the co-founder of A Rocha UK (with his wife Anne). He has a PhD from Cambridge University on biblical theology and biodiversity conservation, and has contributed to many books and articles, including Planetwise, available in six languages. Born and raised in India, Dave has a love for Indian food, Indian culture and Indian Christianity. Dave is also a qualified bird-ringer and loves birding, islands, running and mountains.

View all posts by Dave Bookless (76)

2 responses to “The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – an agenda for the next 15 years?”

  1. […] set of global solutions which can help us to move towards our world flourishing is the Sustainable Development Goals. All nations in the world have already agreed to work towards these 17 goals and their many targets […]

  2. […] 29 defines ‘sustainable development’ over 2,600 years before the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Added to the three conventional pillars of balancing ecological (plant gardens), social (have […]