The Europe Sustainable Development Report 2023/24 (ESDR), a new report released today produced by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in collaboration with SDSN Europe and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), reveals that decisive actions must be taken in the European Union (EU) to avoid environmental and social “tipping points” and to maintain the promise of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The fifth edition of the ESDR, which includes the SDG Index and Dashboards, tracks progress on the SDGs of the EU, its Member States, and partner countries in Europe. The report highlights that at the current rate, a third of the SDG targets will not be achieved by the EU by 2030, with significant differences across European countries; these range from a quarter in Northern and Western Europe to around half in Southern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe on average. In particular, the report underlines stagnation and reversal in progress in many European countries on social targets with growing issues around access to and quality of services for all, as well as poverty and material deprivation driven at least partly by multiple crises since 2020. Globally, the international financial architecture is failing to channel global savings to SDG investments at the needed pace and scale which leads to a reversal in SDG progress in many parts of the world, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable countries.
This year’s report provides essential contributions for the EU to strengthen its SDG leadership at home and internationally ahead of the June 2024 European elections and the Summit of the Future convened by the UN Secretary-General in September 2024.
Loading...
Reload document
Open in new tab Multiple and simultaneous health, security, geopolitical, climate, and financial crises led to a slowdown of SDG progress on average in the EU, driven notably by slow progress on socio-economic outcomes and environmental goals. Finland tops the SDG Index this year (for the fourth year in a row), yet even countries at the top of the SDG Index face significant challenges in achieving several SDGs. The EU faces its biggest SDG challenges in responsible consumption and production, climate and biodiversity, sustainable land- use and diets, and in promoting convergence in SDG progress across its Member States.
This year’s edition also highlights challenges related to the ‘Leave No One Behind’ principle included in the 2030 Agenda. The ‘Leave No One Behind’ Index (LNOB) included in the report measures within-country inequalities across four dimensions: extreme poverty and material deprivation; income inequality; gender inequality; and access to and quality of services. The Index highlights minimal progress and even reversal across three of the four dimensions for most European countries since 2020. The situation is particularly alarming regarding the sub-dimension “access to and quality of services,” where 32 out of 34 European countries covered by the Index show no progress or reversal in progress. The effective functioning of European democracies and institutions, which are at the heart of the sustainable development transition, depends on the capacity of the EU leadership and Member States to provide equal opportunities, protect the most vulnerable, and boost education and skills for all.
As reflected in previous editions, the report also finds that the EU is responsible for significant negative “international spillovers”, driven partly by unsustainable consumption and international supply chains.
