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SDGs: Humanity’s New Year’s Resolutions?

IISD defends the Sustainable Development Goals
Foto: Gabriella Clare Marino | Unsplash

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Interim Co-CEO Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder and its Strategic Advisor Trine Schmidt react to the criticism that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were too ambitious and complex.

In the IISD’s commentary “Why the SDGs are a Good Idea”, Bernasconi-Osterwalder and Schmidt reply to a piece in the Financial Times titled “Why the SDGs are a bad idea” which cast the SDGs as planet Earth’s lofty resolutions:

“The SDGs are the overarching framework of where we want to go and do not dictate which route countries should take. Unlike a New Year’s resolution, achieving the SDGs is not an individual challenge. It’s a collective endeavor. That’s good news.”

You can read the full statement online in the SDG Knowledge Hub. The hub features news and commentary regarding the implementation of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is managed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

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