‘The EU has achieved, or is on track to achieve, about 66% of the sustainable development goals included in the Europe Sustainable Development Report, but progress has been limited to 20% of the indicators and is moving in the wrong direction on 13%’.
The greatest challenges are still in the areas of responsible consumption and production and sustainable food systems (SDG 2 and SDG 12-15). Significant gaps are also recorded in performance on SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure).
Another discouraging aspect is that, according to the report, inequalities within countries have increased in recent years in several nations, ‘as shown by the lack of progress at EU level on many dimensions of the leave no one behind index’.
Finally, while it is true that European countries top the global SDG index thanks to their better performance on the socio-economic SDGs, this leading position has a spillover effect on the rest of the world that is certainly not positive, which is manifested in particular in unsustainable supply chains.
The consumption and raw materials sector, together with the waste exported by the European Union, still cause, according to the Report, labour exploitation, deforestation and environmental damage in other countries. They therefore slow down the achievement of the goals at global level. This phenomenon, known as international spillover, is one the EU is trying to address through legislation, for example the law on ‘embodied deforestation’ (externalities of the production and consumption of products and services) approved by the European Parliament.
And Italy?
Looking at the performance of individual countries in detail, there are still wide territorial gaps between the countries of Northern and Southern Europe and between EU states and candidate members, in particular for Goal 9 ‘Industry, innovation and infrastructure’ and Goal 16 ‘Peace, justice and strong institutions’. It may nevertheless come as a surprise that the report stresses that it was the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the states aspiring to EU membership that made the greatest progress in recent years.
In this scenario, what is Italy’s situation, according to the Report?
With a score of 70.5, Italy improves its position, rising from 23rd in 2021 to 19th in 2022. The situation remains critical for Goal 2, Goal 13, Goal 14 and Goal 15.
Priority actions
According to the Report, the trend must therefore be reversed as soon as possible and the effort to achieve the Goals stepped up, at European and international level.
Five actions are identified as the most urgent and effective:
- include in the voluntary review (that is, the presentation of progress made in implementing the 2030 Agenda, including the achievement of its 17 sustainable development goals and the commitment to leave no one behind) that the European Union is committed to presenting to the United Nations in July 2023 the main themes such as internal priorities, international spillover and diplomacy for the 2030 Agenda;
- publish, by July, a joint declaration by the Council, Parliament and the European Commission to reaffirm the EU’s commitment;
- draw up a communication from the European Commission setting out in detail the means and timeframe with which the EU intends to achieve the Goals;
- strengthen the commitments made at the G20 in Bali and at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh and encourage the adoption of a global mechanism to share the costs of the consequences of the climate crisis;
- develop a new system or renew the mandate of the multi-stakeholder platform to involve civil society, organisations and businesses.
You can read the report here:
https://resources.unsdsn.org/europe-sustainable-development-report-2022
