SDG 17 is the goal that provides the mechanisms to link all of us together and assist one another towards an inclusive and sustainable future.

Today is exactly six years since 193 countries adopted the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. With the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and conflict persisting at present, we need intensified and concerted efforts to advance all the seventeen SDGs.

We can still achieve an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future if we act together now. As the adage goes, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” The best way to create the future we all want to see is to create it together.

Justice and peace are not just abstract concepts that are the subject of philosophers’ writings. These are prerequisites for an inclusive and sustainable society.

It is often said in jest that whatever the problem is, the solution is world peace. Maybe, it is.

But, history has proven us that peace only comes after justice.

The United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda recognizes the importance of strong institutions to deliver justice and to achieve peace. The sixteenth SDG seeks to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Tackling climate change is not just a long-term issue; it is urgent. Worldwide, the average temperature continues to rise at a rate faster than we had previously imagined. The increase in temperature warms oceans, melts snow and ice, and causes sea levels to rise. This has heavily influenced the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. It is highly probable that, by the end of this century, the rise in average surface global temperature will exceed 1.5°C.

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is the global blueprint for a more sustainable future, recognizes that actions must be taken now to combat climate change. The thirteenth sustainable development goal (SDG) seeks to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

As a threat to humanity’s very existence, climate change also endangers the achievement of the other SDGs. This means that SDG 13 (Climate Action) is vital to achieve all of our global goals.

Environmental degradation is another existential threat to humanity that needs to be confronted now. The anthropogenic impact on the environment can no longer be discounted. Overpopulation compounded by overconsumption has taken the toll on the environment.

For decades, environmental degradation has always been taken as a mere externality that accompanies economic and social development. The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development challenges this notion. It mainstreams the idea that economic and social progress is still possible while restoring our planet.

SDG 12 acknowledges that, indeed, it takes the whole of society to make economic and social progress possible while restoring our planet.