Measuring national progress to meet 2030 SDG Targets

Researchers at UCL are investigating how national activities may impact on the environment and society to understand how national policy can support progress towards achieving the SDG targets.

To meet the SDG targets agreed by the UN in 2015, it is vital that progress is monitored, momentum sustained and best practice shared between countries.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will publish its second progress report on the environmental dimension of the SDGs at the 5th UN Environment Assembly in February 2021.

“The first report, published in March 2019 analysed progress based on SDG indicators, including the availability of statistical and spatial data,” explains Dr Alison Fairbrass (UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources), who, with Aidan O’Sullivan (UCL Energy Institute), is co-leading the analysis for the second report, which builds on the first.

The report highlighted weaknesses of the environmental SDG indicators, including a lack of methods and data for a large proportion of the environmental SDG indicators.

The team at UCL is investigating how countries’ activities – such as forest and water management – may be impacting the environment and society, to understand how national policy frameworks support progress towards achieving the SDG targets.

““Our preliminary statistical analysis has identified countries that appear to be outperforming other countries in relation to some indicators selected.”

“The information will provide the basis for the UN Environment Programme’s second Measuring Progress report and will highlight where more effort is needed to achieve the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda,” says Dr Fairbrass.

Scientific evidence, expert consultation and statistical analyses of data underlying the SDG indicators from all countries fed into the analysis, allowing UNEP to identify where good progress is being made.

“Our preliminary statistical analysis has identified countries that appear to be outperforming other countries in relation to some indicators selected,” says Dr Fairbrass.

For example, Belarus appears to be outperforming other countries on measures to protect biodiversity areas, while at the same time reducing the number of species that are at risk of extinction.

“The next stage of the work is engaging experts to explore such results to understand the policy contexts which may explain these outliers, so that lessons can be learned and applied elsewhere,” Dr Fairbrass adds.