🌍 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.
- They aim to reduce poverty and inequality
- They protect the environment and climate
- They support peace, justice, and prosperity
- They apply to all countries, not just poorer ones
🧩 How the SDGs fit together
The SDGs can be grouped using the nested dependencies model.
- Environment → supports everything else (planet first)
- Society → depends on a healthy environment
- Economy → depends on both society and the environment
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.
- Goal → the big aim (e.g. clean energy for all)
- Target → a specific objective within the goal
- Indicator → data used to measure progress
In exams, indicators are how we know if a target is being achieved.
⚡ Example: SDG 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy
- Goal: affordable, reliable, and clean energy for everyone
- Target example: universal access to modern energy
- Indicator example: percentage of people with access to electricity
- Another indicator: share of renewable energy in total energy use
📉 Global progress on the SDGs
Progress towards the SDGs has been uneven and slower than expected.
- Only a small proportion of targets are on track
- Over half of targets are off track
- Some targets have stopped improving or worsened
Global events such as pandemics, conflicts, and climate disasters have slowed progress.
🌍 Income and SDG progress
- High-income countries tend to make faster progress
- Low-income countries face bigger challenges
- Progress depends on access to funding, technology, and support
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.
- Wealthier countries are expected to provide funding and technology
- Support helps poorer countries meet basic needs sustainably
- Global cooperation is essential for success
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
- Common language: governments, businesses, and organisations can use the same goals, targets, and indicators
- Universal: the SDGs apply to all countries, rich and poor
- Ambitious vision: for the first time, countries agreed on shared social and environmental goals for the planet
- Data-driven: many SDGs use measurable indicators to track progress over time
The SDGs help coordinate global action and make progress easier to compare.
⚠️ Limitations of the SDGs
- Silos: goals are sometimes treated separately instead of as connected systems
- Lack of context: the same goals may not reflect local challenges faced by different countries
- Not ambitious enough: some critics argue the SDGs do not challenge harmful economic systems
- Data gaps: some targets lack good indicators, so progress is hard to measure
If something is not measured well, it is harder to improve.
📝 Exam-ready thinking
- SDGs provide a shared global framework
- They support monitoring through indicators and data
- However, they may oversimplify complex local realities
- They do not always reflect a full systems approach
In exam answers, always balance uses with limitations when evaluating the SDGs.
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Doughnut economics
Big idea: A model shaped like a doughnut. The aim: live in the 'dough' — a space that is safe for the planet and fair for people.
The two rings
- Inner ring — social foundation: everyone's basic needs are met (food, water, health, education, housing). Fall into the hole = people go without.
- Outer ring — ecological ceiling: Earth's limits (the planetary boundaries). Go past it = we overshoot and damage the planet.
Goal: meet everyone's needs WITHOUT overshooting Earth's limits — that safe-and-fair space is the doughnut.
Uses: combines social AND environmental goals; popular with cities. Limitations: broad principles — hard to turn into exact policies.
Circular economy
Big idea: Replace the old straight line 'take → make → waste' with a loop that keeps materials in use.
Linear economy ❌
- Take raw resources
- Make products
- Use, then throw away (waste)
Circular economy ✅
- Design out waste
- Reuse, repair & recycle materials
- Regenerate nature
Uses: cuts waste & emissions, saves resources, supports local economies. Limitations: needs new infrastructure & rules; some materials can't be fully recycled.