30% of marine habitats have been destroyed, and 30% of the world's fish stocks are over-exploited [8]. Marine pollution has reached shocking levels; each minute, 15 tons of plastic are released into the oceans [9], 20% of all coral reefs have been destroyed irreversibly, and another 35% are in immediate risk of collapse [10].Individuals can help the oceans by reducing their energy consumption and their use of plastics. Nations can also take action. In Norway, for instance, citizens, working through a web page called finn.no, can earn money for picking up plastic on the beach [11]. Improving the oceans contributes to poverty reduction, as it gives low-income families a source of income and healthy food. Keeping beaches and ocean water clean in less developed countries can attract tourism, as stated in SDG 8, and reduce poverty by providing more employment.The targets include preventing and reducing marine pollution and acidification, protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, and regulating fishing. The targets also call for an increase in scientific knowledge of the oceans.15 Life on land—Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.This goal relates to targets for preserving biodiversity of forest, desert, and mountain eco-systems, as a percentage of total land mass. It is important to restore degraded forests and land lost to drought and flood. SDG 15 calls for more attention to preventing invasion of introduced species and more protection of endangered species.
16 Peace, justice, and strong institutions—Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.Reducing violent crime, sex trafficking, forced labor, and child abuse are clear global goals that come under SDG 16. The international community values peace and justice and calls for stronger judicial systems that will enforce laws and work toward a more peaceful and just society. One target is to see the end to sex trafficking, forced labor, and all forms of violence against and torture of children. SDG 16 also targets universal legal identity and birth registration, ensuring the right to a name and nationality, civil rights, recognition before the law, and access to justice and social services. With more than a quarter of children under five unregistered worldwide as of 2015, about one in five countries will need to accelerate progress to achieve universal birth registration by 2030 [2].
17 Partnerships for the goals—Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.Increasing international cooperation is seen as vital to achieving each of the 16 previous goals. SDG 17 is included to assure that countries and organizations cooperate instead of compete. Developing multi-stakeholder partnerships to share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial support is seen as critical to overall success of the SDGs.
A REAL POSITIVE VIEW OF THE SDGs
While Figure 3.1 lists the 17 SDGs in numerical order and tabular form, another view of the goals is depicted as a pyramid in reverse order as shown in Figure 3.2.
A FURTHER LOOK AT THE SDGs
A careful look at the 17 SDGs will reveal that there may be some conflicts between the goals. Achieving a target for one goal may affect another goal negatively. For example, SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth calls for an annual increase in GDP of 7%. To achieve this goal could have a negative effect on SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
FIGURE 3.2 Sustainable development goals as a pyramid.
Another potential conflict can be between SDG 2: Zero Hunger and SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. There are some clean energy options that are produced from vegetation such as a low carbon emitting vehicle fuel made from corn.
The 17 SDGs include a total of 169 targets [12]. This large number of goals and associated targets has been estimated to cost about US$2–3 trillion/year for the next 15 years [13]. A big portion of this cost is to provide clean water to entire nations. Implementation of the SDGs started worldwide in 2016, but each nation, organization, and corporation within each nation has started or will start at different times.
REFERENCES
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2 2. United Nations Children's Fund, Progress for Every Child in the SDG Era. New York, NY: UNICEF; 2018.
3 3. United Nations: Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. United Nations Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/. Accessed 2019 Dec 17.
4 4. Progress of Goal 9 in 2017. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform; 2017. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg9. Accessed 2019 Dec 17.
5 5. Available at www.globalfootprintnetwork.org. Accessed 2019 Oct 24.
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7 7. Available at http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15. Accessed 2019 Oct 24.
8 8. UNDP; 2017, https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-14-life-below-water.html.
9 9. WWF; 2017, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/every-minute-one-garbage-truck-of-plastic-is-dumped-into-our-oceans/.
10 10. UN; 2016, https://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/ocean_ecosystem_facts/coral_reef_destruction_facts.
11 11. Available at https://www.nrk.no/hordaland/finn.no-kjoper-sekker-med-havplast-1.13599585. Accessed 2019 Oct 24.
12 12. Available at https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals. Accessed 2019 Oct 24.
13 13. The 169 commandments. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2015/03/26/the-169-commandments. Accessed 2015 Mar 26.
CHAPTER 4 The Natural Step
In Chapter
