It is 8 years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
7 OCT, 2023
By Constanza Ramos
Today, Monday 25 September, marks eight years since the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was on 25 September 2015 that leaders from around the world adopted a set of global goals to eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
About 15% of the SDG targets are on track, 48% are moderately on track, and 37% show stagnation or backsliding, according to the SDG Report. Are we on track to achieve the goals? What is needed to improve their implementation? What role does innovation play in achieving the 2030 Agenda? How do companies assess the impact of their sustainability actions? We try to answer these and other questions with the help of experts.
Sustainable Development Goals: everyone has to play their part
Pablo Esteban, Spainsif's sustainable finance expert
The latest UN SDG Progress Report leaves no room for doubt: half of the 140 targets set are far from the desired trajectory. Renewing international commitment and harnessing the actions financing and investment mechanisms needed to reverse this situation is crucial to move towards a greener, more inclusive, safer and fairer planet for all.
In the area of sustainable finance and investment, the challenges are increasingly demanding. COVID-19 and the subsequent socio-economic crisis, geopolitical tensions, the energy crisis, rising prices, and interest rates have increased the financing gap needed to achieve the SDGs in developing countries by more than 70%. The recent SDG Summit in New York has urged the allocation of $500 billion per year for the achievement of the SDGs, and the reform of the international financial architecture to enable the implementation of financing mechanisms that ensure a just, equitable, and inclusive transition in the energy, digital, food and economic spheres, ensuring education, security, and social protection in the most vulnerable countries. This only reinforces the commitment of Spainsif and all its members to the promotion of sustainable finance and investment.
The latest UN SDG report highlights that in 2022 CO2 emissions from energy combustion and industrial processes grew by 0.9% globally, reaching an all-time high of 36.8 billion metric tons, well below global GDP growth of 3.2%. This reverses a trend of more than a decade of decoupling emissions from economic growth. This change in trend is linked to technological advances in the field of non-polluting energies such as renewables, electric vehicles, and heat pumps, but also to the reduction in industrial production in China and Europe. Despite this slowdown, especially in manufacturing, medium-high technology industries did not decline and remained strong. These high-tech industries are necessary for sustainable growth and contribute in general to greener growth.
Every year, Spainsif carries out an analysis of the situation and evolution of sustainable investment in Spain, its growth, and the most widely used sustainable investment strategies, as well as the most pursued SDGs. Giving visibility to these aspects is also essential to be able to quantify and make decisions that favor the progress of sustainable investment in our country.
José Moncada, CEO and founder of La Bolsa Social
According to the United Nations, the SDGs are in danger of stagnating amid the climate crisis and economic fluctuations, conflicts, and the aftermath of pandemics. To achieve the 2030 Agenda, the commitment of national governments is essential, and they must provide specific structures and strategies to mainstream the SDGs into public policies. But we must also join forces with the private sector and civil society, and secure more funding, more resources, and more smart solutions. But there is still hope. There have been important achievements. Investing in inclusive and sustainable economies can provide important opportunities for shared prosperity. And in this sense, in Spain, impact investment is consolidating, growing to 12% in 2021, according to the SpainNAB report.
The Social Stock Market continues to grow every year. We work to promote impact investment, that which seeks in an intentional and measurable way to contribute to solving social and environmental problems, often neglected by the market. In Europe, we have encountered major macroeconomic and social challenges and geopolitical tensions that have left us with a more cautious and timid investment market, with more conservative stances. Securing growth requires the collaboration of different actors, both public and private.
Innovation undoubtedly enables companies to accelerate their contribution to sustainability and the SDGs. New business models with an ambition to innovate, those that propose disruptive innovation and seek innovative solutions, are the ones that contribute most to achieving the 2030 Agenda. But there are also many companies that generate a significant impact without relying on technology. At La Bolsa Social, we are involved in all types of projects that seek transformative solutions and that go beyond standard actions.
Every year, we measure the impact generated by the investors who participate in our financing rounds, and also the impact that the companies financed, thanks to access to this financing, manage to achieve with their activity. In these years we have channeled more than 12 million euros of private capital to 43 social enterprises, 24% of them led by women. These companies, in turn, have generated more than 150 direct jobs, have saved more than 81,000 tonnes of water and more than 55,000 tonnes of CO2, and have generated more than 140,000 beneficiaries of social inclusion and international cooperation projects.
