Future Urban Sustainability: Lessons Learnt From the SDGs and Perspectives for a Post‐2030 Agenda

Abstract

Given the current challenges of global environmental change and other pressing issues, cities—along with other urban actors—must intensify and expand their efforts to operate within planetary boundaries and advance sustainability agendas. As we move toward the period beyond 2030, it will be crucial to establish and meet goals that reduce ecological impacts, advance social justice and inclusion, and avert further environmental degradation. The limitations of the existing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should serve as a basis for deepening structural and conceptual discussions on what a future framework might entail. Against this backdrop, we, as editors of the thematic issue, invited articles that make three central contributions to highlighting the significance of cities and urban actors: First, by examining different global urban experiences, the articles explore how tensions, contradictions, and synergies of the SDGs unfold in urban contexts. Second, they shed light on the challenges and requirements urban actors encounter when translating the SDGs into local action. And third, they put forward ideas for overcoming existing barriers in shaping a post‐2030 sustainable development agenda. This editorial categorizes some of the existing tensions in current SDG implementation and outlines ways to conceptualise a post‐2030 agenda from an urban perspective.