Goals for a sustainable Australia

World governments are currently negotiating on a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will apply to all countries from 2016. As the new goals will take over from Millennium Development Goals, which focussed on poverty eradication in “developing” countries, the SDG discussions and negotiations have been justly focussed on how to continue and finish this work.

But what would the SDGs mean for a developed country like Australia? How can the SDGs help address Australia’s sustainable development challenges?

A new report, Sustainable development goals and targets for Australia: An interim proposal, is among the first in the world to consider these questions. It provides a comprehensive analysis of Australia’s sustainability and proposes goals and targets in 10 areas that would address its challenges.

The goals areas are: (1) food security and agriculture, (2) climate change and energy security, (3) sustainable water, (4) health, (5) social inclusion and gender, (6) education, (7) sustainable economy, (8) biodiversity and ecosystem services, (9) governance, and (10) cities.

In addition, the report considers synergies and trade-offs between different goal areas that could support or hamper, respectively, addressing the goals.

The report is the outcome of a multi-stakeholder consultation process over the past 18 months as part of the Sustainable Development Goals <-> Sustainable Development Solutions initiative of the Monash Sustainability Institute and SDSN Australia/Pacific. It will form the basis of ongoing discussions with stakeholders over the coming year.

Click here to download and read the report.