Humanity has been grappling with environmental challenges that have grown in number and severity ever since the Stockholm Conference in 1972. The well-being of today‘s youth and future generations depends on an urgent and clear break with current trends of environmental decline. The coming decade is crucial. Society needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to limit warning to 1.5 °C as aspired to in the Paris Agreement, while at the same time conserving and restoring biodiversity and minimizing pollution and waste.
This report communicates how climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution can be tackled jointly within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It serves to translate the current state of scientific knowledge into crisp, clear, and digestible facts-based messages that the world can relate to and follow up on. Part I of the report addresses how the current expansive mode of development degrades and exceeds the Earth’s finite capacity to sustain human well-being. The world is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage and this increasingly threatens the achievement of the SDGs. Part II of the report addresses the transformational changes required to achieve a sustainable world. It also assesses the roles and responsibilities of different actors and presents options for action in the interconnected sectors of environment, economics, finance, energy, food, water, health, and cities.