Launch of the 2025 Sustainable Development Report

Ten years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress remains alarmingly off-track, with less than 20% of targets projected to be achieved by 2030. Yet global averages mask stark disparities across regions and countries in SDG progress. Despite these challenges, commitment remains high among the majority of UN Member States, reveals the 10th edition of the Sustainable Development Report (SDR), released today by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).


Prof Gail Taylor, UK Chair, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) says: “A decade on from the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Kingdom remains steadfast in its commitment to the 2030 Agenda. This year’s Sustainable Development Report is a sobering reminder that while global ambition is strong, progress is uneven and far too slow. We urgently need reforms to the global financial system and renewed multilateral cooperation to ensure that no country is left behind. The SDGs are not just targets—they are a lifeline for people and for the planet.”

Since 2016, the SDR has provided the most up-to-date data to track and rank the performance of all UN Member States on the SDGs. This year, more than 200,000 individual data points were used to produce 200+ country and regional SDG profiles. The report was written by a group of independent experts at the SDG Transformation Center, an initiative of the SDSN. It includes the SDG Index and Dashboards, which rank all UN Member States on their performance across the 17 SDGs, as well as a new SDGi Index, which focuses on 17 headline indicators to track overall SDG progress since 2015. The SDR 2025 also outlines urgent reforms to the Global Financial Architecture (GFA) that should be adopted during the upcoming Ff4D Conference in Seville, Spain, to unlock the financing needed to achieve the SDGs.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report, emphasises the following: “Amid rising geopolitical tensions, widening global inequalities, and the escalating climate crisis, this year’s SDR underscores that the world overwhelmingly recognizes the Sustainable Development Goals as the vital pathway to peace, equity, and well-being.  Many countries are making significant progress, but much more can be accomplished through stepped-up investments in education, green technologies, and digital solutions. Above all, we need peace and global cooperation to achieve the SDGs.”

This year’s SDR highlights five key findings:
    1.    SDG commitment is high globally. 
    2.    European countries continue to lead the SDG Index, while East and South Asian countries outperform other regions in SDG progress. 
    3.    At the global level, SDG progress has stalled; none of the 17 Global Goals are on track, and only 17% of the SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. 
    4.    Barbados leads again in UN-based multilateralism commitment, while the U.S. ranks last. 
    5.    The Global Financial Architecture (GFA) must be urgently reformed to finance global public goods and achieve sustainable development. 
 
The report is available online here.

About the SDSN
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. The SDSN mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. We aim to accelerate joint learning and promote integrated approaches that address the interconnected economic, social, and environmental challenges confronting the world. One of the SDSN’s flagship initiatives is the SDG Transformation Center, which produces the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) and provides science-based tools and analytics for SDG pathways, policies, and financing.

For more information, visit unsdsn.org and sdgtransformationcenter.org.