Global Sustainable Development Report 2015

Abstract

In September 2015, world leaders met to adopt a universal and transformative agenda for sustainable development, with a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) at its core. The scientific community has provided valuable guidance in the formulation of the SDGs, and it will need to remain closely engaged as the world moves towards implementing the new agenda and reviewing our progress. The current report should help ensure that our efforts are underpinned by the latest and best scientific evidence and advice. The GSDR is the only comprehensive, global report on sustainable development. It brings together a broad range of existing scientific assessments and reviews global progress and future sustainable development pathways in an integrated way, taking into account the perspectives of scientific communities across the globe. The report endeavours to present a range of scientific perspectives and to be policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive. It offers suggestions on how to strengthen scientists’ engagement with policy makers at national and international levels, in the latter case notably through the High Level Political Forum (HLPF). The report examines the SDGs as an interlinked system, analyzing how the goals are interrelated through their targets, and how progress towards one goal may depend on and contribute to progress towards others. Such an integrated assessment of the SDGs and the post- 2015 agenda will be a standard feature of future GSDRs.