Agenda 2030 — a sustainable promise to the world?
By: European Court Of Auditors
Tags: European Union, Agenda 2030, Environment, Sustainable Development, Climate Change

They say that every new generation has the right to its own ideals, their ambitions to make a better world. I can only concur with that, thinking about my own ideals when I was ‘new.’ And asking myself how they have been taken over by day-to-day life. A thought echoed sometimes by my children, all teenagers who have refreshing assumptions, fresh ideas and vigour to go for change and challenge systemic weaknesses in society. Take for example my youngest daughter, who not only has the same age as Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager activist. She also regularly uses Greta’s language to express the need for drastic change. Her concerns relate not only to human behaviour leaving considerable climate footprints, but also to inequalities, use of resources and social injustice in the world. All nice and well, but sometimes I caught myself thinking ‘Keep on dreaming.’

By Gaston Moonen, ECA Journal Editor-in-Chief

But it turns out that she is not the only one dreaming about a new agenda for this world. In fact, if you take a closer look at what the United Nations Agenda 2030 actually contains, it becomes clear that Greta’s and my daughter’s ideals are shared by many around the world. To be more precise, by 193 countries –all UN member states — when they adopted the Agenda 2030 in 2015, containing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the slogan ‘Leave no one behind.’ Never before has the world community so overwhelmingly agreed on such a far-reaching agenda. Because taking a closer look at the SDGs tells you that they are rather bold, not only on climate action and biodiversity, but also seeking to eliminate poverty and hunger and promoting ambitious objectives on health, education, work and even justice and peace. And, looking at the political spectrum, signed by the widest variety possible. More details on the background of the Agenda 2030 process can be found in this Journal in the article of Karin Huber-Heim.

Looking even further at the Agenda 2030 details, one may be forgiven to think that this agenda is an auditor’s dream (or an auditees nightmare). Not only do the 17 SDGs have 169 targets for action. Each target has between one and three indicators used to measure progress towards reaching the target. In total, there are 230 approved indicators that could be used to measure compliance. Exactly what auditors around the world need to assess progress towards achieving the Agenda 2030, as 193 countries committed themselves to do so. That means only 11 years from now.

Unfortunately, the world is not (yet) an ideal place, as is elaborated upon by ECA Member Eva Lindström. This became clear during the Sustainability Reporting Forum the ECA organised in June 2019, following its publication on EU reporting on SDGs. For various reasons — be it the voluntary and global character of how to reach these goals or the interlinkages between them — not only progress of reaching the goals but even reporting on such progress, or the lack of it, turns out — in friendly auditor’s terms — to be suboptimal.

This does not mean that the EU and its Member States are sitting idle. Sincere efforts, both on action and reporting on it, are undertaken at EU level to make progress towards meeting the SDGs, as European Commission’s Vice President Jyrki Katainen and also EIB Vice-President Emma Navarro make clear in this Journal. But, as several of the contributions from public as well as private auditors show: the promise to the world to deliver has not yet been translated into sufficient action to make 2030 a credible target year for realising most SDGs.

Several contributors to the Journal provide advice, ranging from the winning streak of sustainable financing to slashing illicit financial flows to local awareness campaigns to engage multiple stakeholders. What resonates most vividly is the call for action as expressed by the young contributors to the ECA Forum in June 2019. Action as demanded by Greta Thunberg’s earlier this year from world leaders, saying ‘I want you to panic. […] I want you to act as if the house was on fire — because it is.’

The feelings of our children, our future generation, show more than mere idealism. They show a sense of urgency. A sense of urgency which is also evidenced by many reports — including those from auditors . A sense of urgency to take better care of the world than is done now. Because they realise: what is gone is gone. And we have only this one world to live in.