The sustainable development goals, climate crisis and sustained injustices

Abstract

In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of universal goals in key areas of action linked to sustainable development. The SDGs address not only highly relevant socioeconomic issues, but also pressing environmental challenges associated with the Anthropocene, such as climate change. The integration of a specific climate goal – SDG 13 – into the SDGs is paramount as climate change is a global and urgent threat compromising the realisation of all the SDGs. However, the SDGs’ focus on issues linked to the current economic growth pattern and development paradigm may prevent them from addressing the climate crisis and the inequalities and injustices associated with it. This paper attempts to establish the extent to which the SDGs promote progress towards achieving climate justice or if, on the contrary, they maintain the status-quo and continue to fuel the climate crisis while leaving millions behind.