157th CoR Plenary Session (10-11 Oct 2023)

Sustainable development is a core principle of the Treaty on European Union and a priority objective for the Eu's internal and external policies. The United Nations 2030 Agenda includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be attained by 2030. Unlike their antecedents, the SDGs commit both developed and developing countries, and embrace the economic, environmental and social aspects of development. The SDGs and the broader 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, of which they form the core, are based on findings that human activities have triggered dramatic changes in the conditions on Earth (climate change and biodiversity loss), which in turn have contributed to the deterioration of human wellbeing [...] Challenges in pursuing the SDGs include the fact that countries do not necessarily have an equal starting point and, even more importantly, that regardless of their stage of development, they can no longer afford to apply the current development model, where production and consumption happen at the expense of natural resources. Halfway to the 2030 deadline, progress towards the SDGs is insufficient or, in some cases, has even gone into reverse. The European Union was a leader in drafting the SDGs; it is also a frontrunner in mainstreaming the SDGs in all its policies.

Adopted in 2015 by the United Nations, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – 'the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all' – clearly links 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to a series of targets to be reached by 2030. The 2030 Agenda includes a detailed mechanism for monitoring progress towards these targets. At its core are a number of quantified indicators for each target, which are regularly revised by the UN and other international agencies. These agencies and the EU provide support to national statistical services across the world in collecting data for the SDG indicators in order to gather reliable and comparable datasets [...] The EU Statistical Office (Eurostat) has solid experience in collecting consistent data from the EU Member States. Together with a set of specific indicators created by Eurostat, these data give a good overview of the EU's progress towards the SDGs. Moreover, the EU services for international partnerships have set up a framework of indicators to assess how EU support contributes to other countries' implementation of the SDGs. At this year's HLPF, the EU is presenting its first voluntary review, giving an overview of the EU policies' and initiatives' contribution to progress towards each of the SDGs at EU and global levels.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established in 2015 as a compass for global action under the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are 17 goals on a variety of topics, with SDG7 dedicated to energy. The annual UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) will discuss progress on the goals on 10 19 July 2023, with energy as one of the five goals chosen this year for an in-depth review. The European Union has taken steps to link the SDGs with its policymaking. The EU focuses its SDG7 action on energy consumption, energy supply and access to affordable energy. Indicators monitoring progress include energy efficiency, the share of renewables in energy consumption, energy import dependency and energy poverty. EU policies and legislation address many of these areas, thus contributing to the achievement of SDG7. These include the Energy Efficiency Directive, Renewable Energy Directive, the REPowerEU plan, measures on energy demand reduction and curbing energy prices. To support SDG7 worldwide, EU external action is conducted under initiatives such as the Global Gateway strategy, Neighbourhood Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe, and energy partnerships with third countries.

Freshwater is a vital yet scarce resource that is under increasing threat. Progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 6 (ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all) is off track globally, and many of its targets will not be reached by 2030. While for the most part the European Union has abundant freshwater compared to other parts of the world, it is increasingly exposed to water stress in terms of frequency and areas affected, with climate change predicted to further reduce water availability in some parts of its territory. Pollution remains a major source of pressure on EU water bodies [...] EU legislation and supporting tools cover a wide range of issues relevant to the implementation of SDG 6. Several EU environmental acts are now being revised to get them aligned with the European Green Deal policy objectives, notably on pollution prevention, reduction and control.

Sustainable development is one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity. Its basic principle is to improve people’s well-being and maintain it over time. In 2015, the United Nations approved 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to ensure a better and sustainable future for all, balancing economic, social and environmental development. SDGs create an ‘indivisible whole’; thus, examining their interactions is crucial. Our goals were twofold: (i) to assess the implementation degree of SDGs in EU countries and (ii) to examine the interactions between goals. The potential to achieve a given SDG is approximated by a composite indicator, calculated based on an innovative method of implementing tools derived from sensitivity analysis (SA). Respecting the degree of variability of individual variables and their correlation, we set the weights to equalise their importance.