Towards the agenda 2030: A quantitative analysis of synergies and trade-offs between the sdgs of spain during 2000–2019

Abstract

Global sustainable development has been marked by the United Nations plans for more than two decades. These plans were adopted by most of the developed and developing countries to achieve the Agenda 2030, currently formed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Analysis of the interactions between the SDGs has been a growing area in research and of interest for governments. However, studies on how deteriorated goals can be accelerated by positive interactions with other goals are lacking for specific countries at present. This study aims at filling this gap by finding and quantifying the synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs for Spain. During the years 2000–2019, almost 80% of the SDG targets had significant interactions, either positive (synergy) or negative (trade-off). SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 5 (gender Equality) and SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) contained the larger number of positive interactions, more than 60% in all of them. SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) was strongly linked with indicators from SDG 4 (quality education) and also SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation). Furthermore, indicators from SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) shared a high correlation with the ones from SGD 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 15 (life on land). SDG 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 11 (sustainable cities and communities) had the slowest evolution during the years 2000–2019, showing contractions in some instances. We developed a regression model to assess the influence that selected targets have had on a less evolved target (target 8.6—proportion of youth not in education, employment or training). We managed to clarify high influence from target 1.3 (unemployment compensations), target 8.4 (domestic material consumption) and target 10.5 (non-performing loans) on the dependent variable. Identifying numerical dependencies between the SDGs may help nations to develop a roadmap where targets work as cogwheel towards achieving the Agenda 2030.