The central role of climate action in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

SDG13: climate action

Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues of the present time. This has prompted its inclusion among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as SDG13, or “Climate Action”. This goal calls for the necessary actions to minimise climate change and address its related impacts. Furthermore, it calls for action to be taken at different organisational levels, with a view to providing a broader response to the problem¹. As the first volume of the 6th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report (AR6) has shown, there is a pressing need to address the drivers of climate change, specifically by a reduction of CO₂ emissions².

The first target of SDG13 entails strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related disasters or hazards in all countries³. This objective was conceived considering events such as extreme flooding, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and other natural disasters in mind, since they affect the livelihood of millions of people worldwide. The aim is to ensure that disaster risk management skills are developed, so that they may assist in the prevention, or at least to reduce the consequences of climate-related events⁴. Another target of SDG13 is to pursue a proper integration of climate change measures and solutions into national and global policies³. This may ensure that governments support the related actions or programmes to be implemented regarding climate change which, in turn, may increase a country’s ability to adapt to it⁵. A further target involves improving education and awareness about climate change^6,7, while increasing capacity building among people and institutions to address it, especially by undertaking concerted adaptation and mitigation action, and interpreting early warning signs³. The last target of SDG13 is broken down into 2 subsets. Firstly, it aims to ensure that developed countries are able to mobilize funds of United States Dollar (USD) 100 billion per year to aid developing countries with adaptation and mitigation implementation, and ensuring that the Green Climate Fund remains operational. The second part involves raising the capacity of developing countries and small island nations, while specifically focusing on vulnerable groups such as women, the youth, and marginalized groups of people^3,4. This is further facilitated by the Global Reporting initiative (GRI) that allows countries to report their contributions and—by doing so—provides a basis for accountability⁸.

SDG13 and links with the other SDGs

According to the United Nations⁹, tackling climate change in the context of SDG13 will require many urgent actions. The connection of this SDG13 with all other SDGs is reflected in some binding treaties, which include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol, the Doha Amendment and the Paris Agreement, thus illustrating the pre-existing legal obligations towards SDG13^10,11.

Among its many impacts, climate change is known to lead to reductions in access to drinking water, negatively affecting people’s health (SDG3), limiting their possibilities for income generation (SDG1), also often threatening food security (SDG2)¹². The 2019 Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—COP 25—in Madrid served as a basis to develop crucial steps in areas such as finance and agriculture¹³, as well as technology, capacity building, the rights of indigenous people, or gender issues¹⁴, which are some of the many issues which are highly dependent on climatic conditions. COP 26, in Glasgow, showed that Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts are still nowhere near where they need to be to keep our climate liveable, and support for the most vulnerable countries affected by climate change is still woefully inadequate. However, COP26 did produce some new “building blocks” to advance implementation of the Paris Agreement, which could help put the world on a more sustainable, low-carbon pathway¹⁵. COP 27, in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, closed with a ground-breaking agreement to provide money to help countries that have been severely affected by climate-related disasters, such as floods, droughts, and others¹⁶. This was widely praised as a historic decision. All these steps are to be paralleled by actions intended to further reduce GHG emissions from human activities, reducing the impacts of climate change in building climate resilience. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that even though the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a 6% drop in GHG emissions in 2020, this is not enough to achieve the annual reductions necessary to limit global warming to 1.5º C¹⁷. Financing of climate action has increased, but continues to be exceeded by investments in fossil fuels¹⁷. Also, the progress in meeting disaster risk reduction targets is rather slow between countries, which suggests that more cooperation (SDG17) is needed^18,19.

Air pollution (SDG3), water scarcity (SDG6), food security (SDG2), land use (SDG15) and sustainable energy (SDG7) are important SDGs which are to a considerable extent associated with climate change. Therefore, climate issues need to be carefully considered in their implementation. Liu et al.²⁰ highlight that the advantages of joint efforts to implement climate policies need to be recognized by policy-makers, since all interactions are influenced by socioeconomic factors.

A recent review of the implementation of the SDGs and of the interrelations among the goals undertaken by the United Nations⁹ revealed that many SDGs integrate economic growth, environmental protection and social well-being dimensions, applying both to high-income as to low-income countries. Therefore, further attention to climate change is necessary to achieve fairer economic and social prosperity²¹. It is also about considering that co-benefits, i.e., synergies resulting from climate change mitigation actions delivering non-climate benefits, are important in climate policies, since they are able to lead to improvements in areas such as energy, or in forests’ protection. However, trade-offs, i.e., higher energy prices or more people risking hunger, represent risks and adverse side-effects that must also be accounted for in designing actions^20,22. Cohen et al.²² report the importance of considering both co-benefits and trade-offs involved, i.e., co-impacts, in climate actions, aiming to maximise the former and minimize the latter. There is also a need to search for synergistic outcomes meeting multiple objectives. Each of the 17 SDGs have synergies with climate change, while a few have no direct trade-offs, i.e., SDGs 3, 4, 5, 12 and 13¹⁸.

Based on this context and on the need to further discuss the relations among climate change and all SDGs, Fig. 1 explores an approach that relates each target of the goal on Climate Action (SDG13) to the other SDGs. Disaster risk reduction strategies and its implications (target 13.1), for instance, are covered directly by some of the targets of SDGs 1, 2 and 11, in terms of building resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations, implementing resilient agriculture, and reducing the number of affected people, while promoting more policies and plans towards mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Target 13.2 covers the integration of climate change measures into policies and planning and can be related to a wide range of topics—and consequently, can be relevant to all SDGs. Yet, not all of SDGs have clear references to climate change or climate action efforts, but all would benefit from such policies and plans.

The ability to adapt to climate change and promote resilience encompasses the impacts on health (SDG3) and on provision of water services (SDG6). SDGs 7, 9 and 12 also have important roles in fostering more sustainable strategies to contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions—from renewable energy and energy efficiency to innovative approaches in production, consumption, and industrial services. The impacts of climate change on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are numerous, including desertification, ocean acidification, and the consequences to biodiversity. Therefore, SDGs 14 and 15 are also expected to benefit from a greater consideration to climate change in local and national plans and strategies.

The process of building knowledge and capacity to meet climate change is explored in target 13.3 which outlines the advantages of a greater integration of climate issues in the educational curricula and in capacity-building programmes. SDGs 4 and 8 are also closely associated with these aspects, having one or more targets that demand the acquisition of knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development or resource efficiency (e.g., targets 4.7 and 8.4), in addition to the importance of having the workforce prepared to apply climate action measures in various sectors.

The targets related to the means of implementation (13.a and 13.b) rely on strong institutions and international partnerships (SDGs 16 and 17) for a mobilization of the resources associated with the UNFCCC, and highlight the importance of mechanisms to support climate change planning and management, hence contributing to SDGs 5 and 10^19,23.