Overlooked uneven progress across sustainable development goals at the global scale: Challenges and opportunities.
Yali Liu, Jianqing Du, Yanfen Wang, Xiaoyong Cui, Jichang Dong, Pan Gu, Yanbin Hao, Kai Xue, Hongbo Duan, Anquan Xia, Yi Hu, Zhi Dong, Bingfang Wu, Jürgen P Kropp, Bojie Fu
Author Information
Yali Liu: School of Grassland Science, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
Jianqing Du: Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
Yanfen Wang: Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
Xiaoyong Cui: Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
Jichang Dong: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Pan Gu: School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Yanbin Hao: Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
Kai Xue: Beijing Yanshan Earth Critical Zone National Research Station, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
Hongbo Duan: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Anquan Xia: College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Yi Hu: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Zhi Dong: School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Bingfang Wu: College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Jürgen P Kropp: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14412 Potsdam, Germany.
Bojie Fu: College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Differences in progress across sustainable development goals (SDGs) are widespread globally; meanwhile, the rising call for prioritizing specific SDGs may exacerbate such gaps. Nevertheless, how these progress differences would influence global sustainable development has been long neglected. Here, we present the first quantitative assessment of SDGs' progress differences globally by adopting the SDGs progress evenness index. Our results highlight that the uneven progress across SDGs has been a hindrance to sustainable development because (1) it is strongly associated with many public health risks (e.g., air pollution), social inequalities (e.g., gender inequality, modern slavery, wealth gap), and a reduction in life expectancy; (2) it is also associated with deforestation and habitat loss in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, increasing the challenges related to biodiversity conservation; (3) most countries with low average SDGs performance show lower progress evenness, which further hinders their fulfillment of SDGs; and (4) many countries with high average SDGs performance also showcase stagnation or even retrogression in progress evenness, which is partly ascribed to the antagonism between climate actions and other goals. These findings highlight that while setting SDGs priorities may be more realistic under the constraints of multiple global stressors, caution must be exercised to avoid new problems from intensifying uneven progress across goals. Moreover, our study reveals that the urgent needs regarding SDGs of different regions seem complementary, emphasizing that regional collaborations (e.g., demand-oriented carbon trading between SDGs poorly performed and well-performed countries) may promote sustainable development achievements at the global scale.
References
Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Aug;35(4):969-79
[PMID: 16684899]
