Journal article
Environmental destruction not avoided with the Sustainable Development Goals
Yiwen Zeng, Sean Maxwell, Rebecca K Runting, Oscar Venter, James EM Watson, L Roman Carrasco
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY | NATURE RESEARCH | Published : 2020
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were designed to reconcile environmental protection with socioeconomic development. Here, we compare SDG indicators to a suite of external measures, showing that while most countries are progressing well towards environmental SDGs, this has little relationship with actual biodiversity conservation, and instead better represents socioeconomic development. If this continues, the SDGs will likely serve as a smokescreen for further environmental destruction throughout the decade.
Grants
Awarded by National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank S. Z. Z. Rahim and D. C. J. Yeo for their contributions towards improving this paper. Y.Z. and L.R.C. acknowledge support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under its Commonwealth Research Fellowship grant NRF-CSC-ICFC2017-05.