The world’s goals to save humanity are hugely ambitious — but they are still the best option

Not one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals looks set to be achieved by 2030. But deadlines can help focus the mind, and scientists should double down on their work to support the goals.

Eight years ago, the world signed up to an unprecedented project. At a United Nations summit in September 2015, 193 countries agreed to work towards 17 goals with the aim of improving the lives of all people and the planet we inhabit. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would include efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, reduce inequalities, rescue the climate and sustain life on Earth — and they would all be achieved by the ambitious deadline of 2030. Never before had nations united on such a bold commitment to improve conditions for humanity and its home. With the world now halfway to that deadline, the sheer scale of the task is clearer.

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