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Connecting climate action with other Sustainable Development Goals

Nature Sustainability volume 2, pages 674–680 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The international community has committed to combat climate change and achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here we explore (dis)connections in evidence and governance between these commitments. Our structured evidence review suggests that climate change can undermine 16 SDGs, while combatting climate change can reinforce all 17 SDGs but undermine efforts to achieve 12. Understanding these relationships requires wider and deeper interdisciplinary collaboration. Climate change and sustainable development governance should be better connected to maximize the effectiveness of action in both domains. The emergence around the world of new coordinating institutions and sustainable development planning represents promising progress.

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Fig. 1: Impacts of climate change on the achievement of the SDGs.

United Nations.

Fig. 2: Synergies and trade-offs between climate action and the SDGs.

United Nations.

Fig. 3: Process links between international commitments on climate change and sustainable development.

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Acknowledgements

KTH research work for this Perspective was partially funded by the Formas grant no. 2018-01253.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Energy Systems Analysis, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Francesco Fuso Nerini & Mark Howells

  2. Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Francesco Fuso Nerini & Hisham Zerriffi

  3. Science Policy Research Unit, School of Business, Management, and Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Benjamin Sovacool

  4. Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, London, UK

    Nick Hughes & Julia Tomei

  5. World Energy Outlook team, International Energy Agency, Paris, France

    Laura Cozzi

  6. Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, University College London, London, UK

    Ellie Cosgrave

  7. Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Massimo Tavoni

  8. RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Milan, Italy

    Massimo Tavoni

  9. Department of Forest Resources Management, Forest Sciences Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Hisham Zerriffi

  10. Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Kingsford, New South Wales, Australia

    Ben Milligan

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  1. Francesco Fuso Nerini
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Contributions

F.F.N. coordinated the research team for this Perspective, designed and contributed to the expert elicitation process and wrote and reviewed the paper. B.M., B.S. and N.H. designed and contributed to the expert elicitation process and wrote and reviewed the paper. L.C., E.C., M.H., M.T., J.T. and H.Z. contributed to the expert elicitation process and to writing and reviewing sections of the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Francesco Fuso Nerini or Ben Milligan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary References 1–5, results from the analysis included in one big table.

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Fuso Nerini, F., Sovacool, B., Hughes, N. et al. Connecting climate action with other Sustainable Development Goals. Nat Sustain 2, 674–680 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0334-y

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