The SDGs at Higher Level: The same 17 goals as SL. At HL, link them to environmental justice and to the HL lenses: law, economics and ethics.
Practise this as you read
- Link each piece of evidence to the goal's own words.
- Weigh the uses of the SDGs against their limitations.
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One to-do list for the world: The SDGs are social and environmental goals and targets. They guide action on sustainability and environmental justice.
The points to remember
- 17 goals, agreed by all UN member countries in 2015, to reach by 2030.
- Each goal has targets; indicators measure progress towards each target.
- They are social and environmental goals: poverty, inequality, climate, nature, prosperity, peace and justice.
- They apply to every country, rich and poor.
- They guide action on sustainability and environmental justice.
Remember it as: 17 goals, 169 targets, one deadline: 2030.
A target says what to reach; an indicator shows how far a country has got.
Real example, SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation): India's Clean India mission built more than 100 million household toilets between 2014 and 2019.
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The SDGs are a model: a simplified plan for a complex world. So they have uses and limitations.
The points to remember
- Use: a common ground for policymaking: every government works to the same goals.
- Use: they relate to both developed and developing countries, not only poorer ones.
- Use: they galvanise the world into tackling economic and social inequality.
- Limitation: the goals do not go far enough: SDG 8 still aims for economic growth.
- Limitation: top down and bureaucratic: set by governments, with little say for local people.
- Limitation: they tend to ignore local contexts: one target does not fit every country.
- Limitation: lacking in supportive data: many countries cannot measure their indicators.
Remember it as: Uses: same goals, every country, a fairer world. Limits: too little, top down, one size, no data.
Real example: many low-income countries lack the surveys to report their indicators, so gaps in the data hide where progress is slowest.
Goals can pull against each other: Faster growth (SDG 8) can mean more emissions (SDG 13). Say which goal gains and which loses.
How this comes up: Paper 1: a fact file on a place and the words of one SDG. Outline the evidence of progress towards the goal [1].
Figure 1 is a fact file on the city of Porto Lume and gives the text of UN SDG 11.
Using the information in Figure 1, outline the evidence that Porto Lume is making progress towards SDG 11.
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