UN: Just 17% of Sustainable Development Targets Likely to Be Reached by 2030

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The Facts

  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that just 17% of the 169 specific targets attached to the global goals for sustainable development are on track to be achieved by the end of the decade.

  • This comes as a newly released UN report titled "The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024" revealed that nearly half of these targets have shown minimal and moderate progress, and more than one-third have stalled or regressed.


The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

Given the current rate of progress, it's unlikely that the world will be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. With only six years left, world leaders must intensify their efforts to build a more resilient and abundant world. The UN cannot stress this enough — it's time for peace, dialogue, and diplomacy.

Establishment-critical narrative

Guterres has yet again sounded the alarm that the Sustainable Development Goals are off-track in an attempt to get more funding for an endeavor that has been doomed from the start. These imprecise goals are actually wishful aspirations with no sustainable development theory behind them. There's not even robust data to measure progress.


Metaculus Prediction


Public figures in this story


Establishment split

CRITICAL

PRO