Sustainable Development Goals

🌍 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

What are the SDGs?: The **Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)** are 17 global goals created by the United Nations in 2015 to solve major problems facing the world by **2030**.

🧩 How the SDGs fit together

The SDGs can be grouped using the **nested dependencies model**.

If the environment fails, society and the economy cannot survive.

🎯 SDGs, targets, and indicators

Each SDG is broken down into **targets**, and each target is measured using **indicators**.

In exams, indicators are how we know if a target is being achieved.

⚡ Example: SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy

📉 Global progress on the SDGs

Progress towards the SDGs has been **uneven and slower than expected**.

Global events such as pandemics, conflicts, and climate disasters have slowed progress.

🌍 Income and SDG progress

Countries that contributed least to global problems often face the greatest barriers to achieving the SDGs.

⚖️ SDGs and global fairness

Achieving the SDGs is also an issue of **environmental and social justice**.

The SDGs cannot be achieved by countries acting alone — cooperation matters.

🌍 Uses and Limitations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Big idea: The SDGs are a **global framework** that helps guide sustainable development, but like all models, they have **strengths and weaknesses**.

✅ Why the SDGs are useful

The SDGs help coordinate global action and make progress easier to compare.

⚠️ Limitations of the SDGs

If something is not measured well, it is harder to improve.

📝 Exam-ready thinking

In exam answers, always balance **uses** with **limitations** when evaluating the SDGs.