UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- A new UN report released on Tuesday calls for transformational shifts rooted in science that would advance global sustainable development.
The Global Sustainable Development Report 2023, entitled "Times of crisis, times of change: Science for accelerating transformations to sustainable development," was drafted by an independent group of 15 scientists appointed by the UN secretary-general.
The report found that at the midpoint for implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 associated Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by world leaders in September 2015, incremental and fragmented change is insufficient to achieve the goals in the remaining seven years.
Instead, strategic, whole-of-society transformations are needed and must be achieved globally, leaving no country, society or person behind, according to the report.
It stressed that science must play a major role in advancing sustainable development, providing evidence to support the emergence of innovations and dismantle negative pathways or paradigms.
The report called on universities, policymakers and research funders to increase support to research guided by the 2030 Agenda, especially in the Global South.
It provided guidance on how different societal actors can shape transformations for sustainable development and actively accelerate progress, noting that interventions in certain areas, such as sustainable food systems, human well-being or energy decarbonization with universal access, can have systemic effects.
The authors suggested that policymakers could target such entry points, applying levers like governance, science and technology, business and finance, individual and collective action, as well as capacity-building toward transformation.
The report helps to shine new light on transformative processes and practices that can help move the world from commitment to action, and from declaration to delivery, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in his foreword to the report.
The report underscores that "together, we have the knowledge to steer change toward a better future," Li Junhua, the UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, wrote in the report's preface.
"Science that is multidisciplinary, equitably and inclusively produced, openly shared, widely trusted and embraced, and socially robust and relevant to society, provides the foundation for the transformations the world needs," Li said. ■
