In 2015, the United Nations (UN) agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), summarized in the Agenda 2030. According to these goals, the world should be eradicated from hunger and poverty by 2030, and all people should have access to education, clean water, and reliable energy. Gender equality and limiting the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) were also on the list.
Now, at the halfway mark, it has already become clear that most of these goals will not be met. A special UN report found that about 30% of the goals set have seen either no improvement, or reverse trends. If the world stays on the current trajectory, the UN estimates that over 600 million people will be suffering from hunger in 2030.
Johannes Varwick is a political scientist and an expert for international relations at the University of Halle. He spoke with DW about the challenges the UN Sustainable Development Goals are facing. “The goals were certainly ambitious, but they would have been attainable with the right political will,” he said. “But not enough states took their commitment seriously.”
One further problem he saw was that international relations were always “short-term and conflict-driven.” He added that “crises like the 2008 global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, or the war in Ukraine have shifted priorities. While this may be understandable, it is also short-sighted.”
Progress on reducing poverty and hunger ‘has been reversed’To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
German government pinching pennies Despite this, the 193 UN member states have recommitted themselves to the SDGs. The new declaration states: “We will act with urgency to realize [the Agenda 2030] vision as a plan of action for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, leaving no one behind.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “rescue plan” for the SDGs.
Germany’s government has also been mkaing increasingly urgent appeals. “Time is running out,” German chancellor Olaf Scholz said during his speech before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. He added that Germany was advocating for “keeping the goals at the top of the international agenda.” Germany’s development minister Svenja Schulze also called upon states to step up the tempo.
But critics believe Berlin is partially to blame for the lack of progress. The German Catholic aid organization Misereor, for example, has pointed out that it is “not an encouraging sign,” that the upcoming federal budget allotted 15% lower funds for development aid. The Protestant relief agency Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt) has also criticized federal plans to slash the budget.
The climate activist Luisa Neubauer recently described the UN SDG Summit to the German television channel Phoenix this way: “Everyone makes sweeping promises, and then they go home and don’t do what they they need to do.” Germany does not seem to be making any meaningful change of course, she believes.
Erosion of western power While Chancellor Scholz spoke to a practically empty room, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had all eyes on him in the General Assembly. He used his speech issue a dire warning of Russian aggression.
But even the amount of attention the UN devotes to the war in Ukraine is a bone of contention. Many countries from the so-called Global South have accused the West of taking this war too seriously and neglecting important issues such as global poverty reduction in the process.
Zelenskyy urges world leaders to stand united against RussiaTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
For some time, Russia and 10 other nations had threatened to block the summit’s joint declaration, complaining that sanctions harmed their economic development. Numerous countries did not condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have refused to join western sanctions against Russia.
Varwick believes this shows that power has shifted away from the West and towards authoritarian states such as Russia and China. “The political West lacks followers. The increasing importance of the BRICS+ format, which can also be seen as a direct challenge to Western power, makes this evident,” he told DW.
“The G77+China summit in Havana also shows the growing claims of the Global South,” he added. But he also stated that he did not see a viable alternative to the UN. “We don’t have anything better than the United Nations.”
German initiatives What comes next for the Sustainable Development Goals? The German government has launched several initiatives. In New York, chancellor Scholz and development minister Schulze invited guests to the Hamburg Sustainability Conference in June 2024, “to convene government representatives from the Global North and the Global South, as well as thought leaders from the private sector, science, civil society and international organizations to develop joint solutions for a much-needed social-ecological transformation,” as Schulze’s ministry stated.
Germany is currently celebrating 50 years of UN membership, and, along with co-facilitator Namibia, is planning a UN Summit of the Future for next year. Perhaps the cooperation between these two nations will signal that the North and South can indeed define and pursue shared goals.
This article was translated from German.
Comments