Application of the 2030 Agenda in the Principality of Asturias (Spain)

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda was predominantly defined to be applied by national states, but the role of regional and local governments is also becoming essential to the accomplishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the pursuit of a better world for all. The European Union has adopted the 2030 Agenda as a flagship initiative to promote wealth and well-being among member countries. This chapter analyzed the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in a declining European region like the Principality of Asturias, which enabled to shed light on challenges encountered in this process. This Spanish region approved a pioneering annual budget for 2022 in line with the SDGs. The level of coverage of the SDGs was firstly assessed by comparing the SDG indicators with the metrics proposed in Asturias. Open data were then used to evaluate the institutional performance in the fulfillment of the regional sustainability objectives over the last years. Main findings showed a low number of indicators focused on the measurement of SDG progress in Asturias with respect to those deemed in the 2030 Agenda. Furthermore, some inconsistencies were also found when assigning budget allocations to each SDG. The present study may be considered as a representative example of how the 2030 Agenda was implemented in the European region.