Page 11 - Economy_Sustainable Global Economy

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Chapter 2 UN Goals and Business

2.1 History of international policies regarding sustainable development and the birth of
the Sustainable Development Goals.

Before starting with the presentation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we will contextualise in this
section what has been the international political framework that led to the 2030 Agenda. The first interest
in environment as a political stake appeared for the first time in the 70’s, with the organisation of the first
“Heart Summit” in Stockholm in 1972, leading to the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment (1972).

Then, we have to wait until 1992 to see the organisation of the second “Heart Summit” organised in Rio,
and where to Rio Convention was adopted, also called the convention on biological diversity, introducing
the precautionary principle and the Agenda 21. In 1997, the conference of Kyoto on climate change marks
a turning point in the international policy with the beginning of the negotiations of the Tokyo protocol
about the reduction of CO2 emissions. This protocol was finally adopted and entered into force in 2005,
after 8 years of negotiations. New “Heart Summits” and international conferences where held during the
last decade (2009 – Conference of Copenhagen on Climate, 2010, Conference of Cancún on Climate), 2012
Conference of the United Nations on Sustainable Development in Rio, etc.) achieving more or less success.
One of the most important was the International Conference on Climate Change - COP21 organised in Paris
in 2015. During this conference, world leaders agreed on Agenda 2030, a set of 17 Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals and 169 targets proposed by the United Nations, which establishes a plan to achieve the Goals
in 15 years. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute a universal call to action to end poverty,
protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of people around the world.

The EU was instrumental in shaping Agenda 2030. Moreover, the EU and its member countries are fully
committed to implementing Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Furthermore, the
present European policies refer largely to the SDG. Recently, on January 2019, the European Commission
published the Reflection document Towards a Sustainable Europe in 2030, which is presented as a first
step for a future European strategy for the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Here is the summary table of the SDG set in the 2030 Agenda: