Key findings of the Sustainable Development Report 2019
World nations obtain their worst performance on SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). No country obtains a “green rating” (the report’s indicator for the achievement of an SDG) on SDG 14 (Life Below Water).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems in 2019 (www.ipcc.ch/srccl). We refer to the IPCC’s report in short here as the Special Report on Climate Change and Land. The Special Report was a response to proposals from governments and observer organisations to the IPCC.

The 2019 Africa SDG Index and Dashboards Report is a call for action not only to meet the SDGs but also to ensure timely and high-quality data on SDG indicators. The report focuses on the efforts that African governments are taking to incorporate the SDGs into their national strategies, budgets, public engagements, and coordination among branches of government. This report includes all 54 African countries and their country profiles.

The Arab region is a diverse one when it comes to sustainable development. In recent years and decades, we have seen both major success stories in prosperity and stability, but we have also witnessed tragic conflicts and wars. At the same time, the 22 countries of the region are bound together by a common history, language and culture. We share many similar challenges and opportunities. Instability and human insecurity are in no one’s interest.

This report comes at a critical time for Europe. The new President and Commission have already committed to a European Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. They have further pledged to place the SDGs at the centre of the European Semester – the Union’s framework for the coordination of economic policies across member states. Indeed, in their mission letters each new Commissioner is asked to ensure “the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals within their policy area.

US cities are at the forefront of the sustainable development challenge. They contain 80% of the country’s population, and therefore have the capacity to make or break SDG achievement (US Census Bureau 2016). But, while crucial to SDG attainment, they Executive Summary cannot accomplish this alone. While 80 percent of US residents live in urban areas, only 3 percent of land is urban; rural and urban areas are deeply interconnected (US Census Bureau 2016).

The Sustainable Development Report 2019 – Mediterranean Countries Edition is a synthetic review of the fourth edition of the Sustainable Development Report 2019, including integrated contents and tables editing, specifically focusing on 23 Mediterranean countries. It was drafted by a team of experts of the University of Siena – Santa Chiara Lab, as hosting institution of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the Mediterranean Area (SDSN-Mediterranean), in an effort to raise awareness on the SDGs and foster the implementation of transformation strategies.

This 2019 SDG Index and Dashboards Report for European Cities (prototype version) provides an overview of the performance of 45 capital cities and large metropolitan areas on the Agenda 2030 and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by global leaders in September 2015 at the UN Sustainable Development Summit.

Faced with a new global paradigm of achieving the Sustainable Development goals by 2030 and especially on the issue of soils, goal 15.3, which says: “By 2030, fight desertification, rehabilitate degraded lands and soils, including lands affected by desertification, drought and floods, and seek to achieve a world with neutral soil degradation. ” In this regard, it is clear that the international community has taken up the sustainability approach as a “bet” to somehow remedy the problem of the degradation of the Earth's resources, and thereby create a better future.

Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict. The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 - and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price.

Interview with Ibrahim Thiaw

Forestry has long been viewed as the domain of mitigation efforts. Without a doubt, the world will be hard-pressed to meet the targets of keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius without including the carbon-sink role played by forests. However, viewing forests as just carbon sinks misses further vital contributions they can play in supporting adaptation. As the search begins for frameworks and models where adaptation and mitigation are jointly addressed, the contributions of approaches such as community forestry are being seen with fresh eyes.

With only 7 percent of agricultural land, Tajikistan is a mountainous country located at the heart of Central Asian region, prone to desertification, salinization, soil erosion and forest loss. The first step to address the issue is to measure the real cost of degradation of the agricultural land. The full costs of land degradation are believed to be high and increasing but they are also difficult to measure.