The first European Sustainable Development Report is launched

News: Dec 11, 2019

The 2019 Europe Sustainable Development Report: “Towards a strategy for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the European Union”, has just been launched. Sweden is ranked second of all the 28 countries.

The 2019 Europe Sustainable Development Report is the first independent quantitative report on the progress of the European Union and its member states towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

– This is an excellent report, describing the SDG implementation status as well as outlining strategies for how the EU countries should reach the SDGs, says Martin Eriksson, Network Manager for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in Northern Europe.

The report includes the SDG Index, trends and interactive SDG dashboards. The SDG Dashboards are important resources where countries or SDGs can be selected and analysed for progress, the International Spillover Index or the brand new Leave-No-One-Behind Index. Compared to the global SDG Index, this EU SDG Index is based on much richer and more timely data. The report also outlines six transformations for the SDGs and applies them to the conditions of the European Union. The authors offer practical recommendations for how the EU and its member states can achieve the SDGs with a focus on three prioritised areas: Pursue EU-wide Strategies and Policies, Strengthen Global Leadership and Development Cooperation, and Tackling International Spillovers.

A few interesting observations are worth mentioning:

• Denmark, Sweden and Finland are the top three index member states in the EU. Still, no member state is on track to achieve the SDGs. Sweden has significant or major challenges remaining to reach the SDGs 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.
• In the new Leave-No-One-Behind Index, Finland, Netherlands and Denmark are the top three countries. Sweden is ranked fourth.
• Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki performs the best (>70%) of all capitols in the EU.
• Finland, Denmark and Sweden do not perform well in the Spillover Index, and in terms of the biodiversity threats embodied in their imports, Sweden has major challenges remaining.

Link to the 2019 Europe Sustainable Development Report

The report was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).

SDSN Northern Europe is a network that mobilizes scientific and technological exertise in the Nordic countries to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.

The secretariat of SDSN Northern Europe is hosted by the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg. Both universities are members in the network and anyone within a member organisation is welcome to connect with the network. Sign up to the communication platform Mobilize here and learn more about SDSN Northern Europe at their website.”

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