Identifying Sustainability and Knowledge Gaps in Socio-Economic Pathways Vis-à-Vis the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global community has set itself an ambitious development agenda. Current analytical and quantitative modeling capabilities fall short of being able to capture all 17 SDGs and their targets. Even highly ambitious and optimistic pathways currently used in research, such as SSP1/SSP1-2.6, do not meet all SDGs (sustainability gaps) and fail to provide information on some of them (knowledge gaps). We show that for research and modeling purposes, the SDG targets can serve as a basis but need to be operationalized to reduce complexity and also to account for long-term sustainability concerns beyond 2030. We have explored here the requirements for assessing more comprehensively the sustainability of development pathways, guided by holistic interpretation of the SDGs to enable an assessment of the potential embedded synergies and trade-offs between the economic, social and environmental objectives. We see this as call for action for science to work on filling these gaps. At the same time, this is also a call for policy makers and the global community to close the sustainability gaps that emerge from such analysis. We anticipate that such analysis will provide useful information for policy advice and investment decisions during implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda.

A Novel ICT Framework for Sustainable Development Goals

“…Nerini et al [62] analyze SDG7 by characterizing efforts, in particular their synergies and trade-offs, in achieving SDG7. Zimm, Sperling, and Busch [63] identify sustainability and knowledge gaps in Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) in relation to the Agenda 2030 SDGs. SSPs, which are used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, do not address all SDGs, covering only some of the SDGs (e.g., SDG13).…”

“…Although SESF framework has proven capabilities of addressing common resources as documented in many works of Ostrom and her colleagues, nevertheless, "current analytical and quantitative modeling capabilities fall short of being able to capture all 17 SDGs and their targets" [63]. Moreover, Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), established by the climate change research community for enhancing and facilitating the integrated analysis of future climate impacts, do not aim to address all SDGs.…”

“…Moreover, Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), established by the climate change research community for enhancing and facilitating the integrated analysis of future climate impacts, do not aim to address all SDGs. For example, even the most advanced pathways such as SSP1/SSP1-2.6, do not meet all SDGs and do not provide information on some of them [63]. Integrated assessment models used for the development of the SSP scenarios include: To provide means for the framework to have true impacts of SDGs by motivating citizens to participate in addressing SDGs and by enabling those in positions of power to endorse the framework.…”

Intersecting vulnerabilities: Climatic and demographic contributions to future population exposure to Aedes-borne viruses in the United States

“…We view the SSP*RCP framework as a promising tool to explore the complex interactions among socioeconomic development, climate change, and the future spread of VBDs -as recently highlighted in Messina et al (2019). The main advantages of this framework include (i) the SSPs are being increasingly quantified (on gridded scales) for a number of relevant variables such as population growth (Jones & O'Neill, 2016, Gao, 2017, GDP (Murakami & Yamagata, 2016, Gidden, In review), and urbanization (Gao & O'Neill, 2019, (ii) the scenarios account for the wide range of uncertainties in both socioeconomic development type and emission scenarios, (iii) the scenario matrix can be used to explore the relative contribution of climate change and socioeconomic development to the future spread of VBDs, and (iv) the growing literature on the vulnerability of populations -and of the health sector -under the SSPs (Ebi, 2013, Sellers & Ebi, 2017, Rao et al, 2018, Zimm et al, 2018, Welborn, 2018, Striessnig & Loichinger, 2016 can inform about the future vulnerability of exposed populations.…”

The Concept of Sustainable Development in the Functioning of Municipalities Belonging to Special Economic Zones in Poland

“…Zimm, Sperling and Busch [75] examined the requirements for a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability objectives in order to create synergies between economic, social and environmental objectives. According to them, existing tools and methods for assessing the sustainable development are not suitable.…”