17 Goals to Transform Our World
The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.
Of the 17 goals, number 13 calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. But all of the goals influence climate change – and vice versa. We will make little progress on climate action without accelerating achievement of Goal 7 on affordable and clean energy, for instance, or Goal 12 on responsible consumption and production. Climate solutions can support the goals such as through a just transition to renewable energy centred on providing decent work, the focus of Goal 8, or through developing resilient infrastructure under Goal 9.
Interested in learning more about how climate connects to core SDG issues? Check our climate action fast fact sheets on energy, food, jobs, health and the economy. Have some fun on the SDG Student Resources page. Or find out how you can Act Now on climate and the SDGs. Plus: Spread the word with our Act for climate/Act for the SDGs digital assets.
Check perspectives from our thought leaders, such as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All Damilola Ogunbiyi, who is passionate about ending energy poverty. Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, weighs in on ocean-climate connections and the possibilities of a sustainable blue economy in line with Goal 14.
Latest: The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023 provides a global overview of progress on sustainable development using the latest available data and estimates. It tracks the global and regional progress towards the 17 Goals, including climate action, with in-depth analyses of selected indicators for each Goal.